Time Window
by Kessie-Louise
Summary: 30 years into the future, Cyrus Borg has created a machine that accidentally brings Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, and Lloyd from the past into the future! It's all fun and games until the past ninja realize their future selves have gone missing- now with three weeks to kill and a new savior refusing her inherited destiny, will they ever get back to their time line? [WIP][Reviews welcome!]
1. Cyrus's Invention

_**30 Years in the Future**_

 _ **Borg Industries HQ**_

. . .

The four teens didn't look very excited to be there that early in the day. Well, one was, but she was always like that.

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Cyrus told the four in a proud voice.

"Did we have a choice?" the oldest of the four asked as he let out a long yawn. His name was Hyun, but preferred to be called Cap. He was dressed in loose fitting clothing, and his dark brown hair was combed back but never brushed out.

"No, not particularly." Cyrus sheepishly admitted. "But it was only right that you four be the first to know about this new advancement."

"Why us?" the other boy in the group, Kass complained as he flicked his shaggy slate black hair to the side. Unlike Cap, who looked like he had just been shipwrecked during a horrible storm, Kass dressed much cleaner with a white varsity jacket, light washed blue jeans, and a graphic T-shirt with the emblem of his favorite band, the Folded.

"Can't an old man enjoy the company of fresh, young minds?" Cyrus joked with a smile.

"Without it getting creepy after awhile?" Kass snorted, "No, not really."

Cyrus let out a rather contented chuckle before looking around at the four young adults.

"Speaking of fresh, young minds," Cyrus then said, "Where is Montgomery?"

"Oh, I know!" one of the two females present spoke up with great enthusiasm. Although she didn't look it on first inspection, she was actually an android created by Cyrus to age and grow while learning. Her full name was Artificial Life In a Child's Ethnic, but everyone called her Alice because it was more simple. Alice had platinum blonde hair that was held tightly behind her in a long ponytail, while her outfit consisted of a light blue sundress with a matching bolero jacket. On Alice's face was a perpetual smile that hardly ever went away. If anything, it served to be anyone's first guess to know that she was more than what she seemed.

"Have you heard from him recently?" Cyrus asked her. Alice nodded eagerly.

"I sent him an electronic mail message yesterday and he has confirmed that he is at a mechanical refinery seminar for the next two days. He sends his regards and apologizes for having to miss your next great technological unveiling!"

"Montgomery is always so apologetic." Cyrus said, mostly to himself.

"More like a huge butt kisser." Kass retorted.

"I've seen you get lower." Cap mused. "At least Monty means it, while you just try to get out of trouble."

"Hey!" Kass shouted in anger and defense, preparing to attack Cap.

"I agree, this has gone on long enough." Cyrus then told the kids. Cyrus then turned to look at the last teen in the room who had yet to speak. "Minerva, you've been quiet. Is something on your mind?"

The last teen present, a girl, gave Cyrus a rather dull glare. Of anyone there, she was the one that looked the most like she had just gotten out of bed. Her messy, mousy brown hair was held back in a loose fishtail braid- she was also dressed in red flannel pajama pants with a black tank top. She was also the only one lacking any shoes, and her feet were paying the price against the cold steel floor.

"Come on Minnie, when you're quiet, you're thinking of something big." Cap agreed playfully.

" _You_ call me Mina." she replied darkly as she flashed him a dark look. "And you know it."

"She talks!" Cap replied in a joking tone. Mina glared at him with a grimace and a disgusted grunt.

"Minerva, what's the matter?" Cyrus asked, moving his wheelchair closer to her in an act of concern. "Is there something you would like to say?"

"You said that..." Mina started to say, but hesitated.

"Said what, child?" Cyrus asked curiously.

"You said that this project would... would help me understand."

"Indeed it would." Cyrus agreed with a smile. "You see, I created a time window."

"A what?" came the collected breath of all four teens.

"A time window." Cyrus repeated as he moved toward the contraption in the middle of the room. "Look, I'll turn it on and you can see for yourselves."

With blank stares, the teens watched as Cyrus turned to machine on and moved his wheelchair back as it hummed to life. Slowly, a small orb of light appeared over the console and started to flicker in and out like an old television set. It took some time, but color was soon distinguishable on the orb. Kass was the first to notice what they were looking at.

"It's the four ninja!" Kass exclaimed. "You see them? There's the Ninja of Fire, the Ninja of Earth, the Ninja of Lightning, _and_ the Ninja of Ice! You see them too, right? They're all right there!"

Sure enough, everyone could see the four different colored ninja on the orb above Cyrus's machine. The teens stared in awe as the four ninja spun around in full Spinjitzu mode as they took out some kind of skeleton creature one by one. When the last of the skeleton army had fell, the four different colored ninja threw back their hoods in victory- that was when a collective gasp in surprise erupted from the teens.

"But that's...!?" Kass started to say, but found he was at a loss of words. Everyone else looked on in awe at the new revelation as well.

"Look at how cute Zane was before he had his second skin!" Alice playfully mused as she saw the head of the white ninja. "I wonder why he changed- his first skin looks handsomely made and super realistic!"

"Wow..." Cap added as he kept watch of the blue ninja, "Jay sure had more hair back then..."

"Well, look at Cole!" Kass said in a rather hurt tone, "Compared to that body, it's almost like he doesn't even work out any more!"

"Now that you mention it..." Cap agreed as he tilted his head to look at the black ninja.

"Oh, Zane must have said something witty- do you see how they're all laughing now?" Alice then enthused.

"If it was so funny, why isn't Zane laughing?" Cap asked Alice with a bemused smile.

"He simply does not know how humorous he can be!" Alice declared, "See? He's letting out a small chuckle now to show that he finds it rather hilarious like the others do!"

"I... do not think that's why he's laughing..."

"Of course it is, why else would they laugh at him?"

"Well..."

Throughout their chatter and reaction to the now revealed identities of the four ninja, Mina stood still and stared at the orb. Cyrus could tell that she was in a paralyzed shock and moved his wheelchair closer to her.

"Are you alright Minerva?" Cyrus asked quite curiously, "I know this is quite a shock to you- would you like to talk about it?"

"Kai..." she muttered in a breath, almost appearing to be in a trance that had tuned Cyrus out. "Why...?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, I truly am." Cyrus then told Mina in a soft tone, "But there is no other option and time is running out. They need you."

Mina slowly started to back up as she shook her head. The three other teens turned their heads to Cyrus.

"What do you mean 'they need you'?" Kass asked. "I know they're missing and all, but why do they need her?"

"Not just her, all of you." Cyrus told them with a solemn face.

"No." Mina said, shaking her head. "I can't help anyone! I can't _save_ anyone! I'm not going anywhere!"

And with that she fled before Cyrus, or anyone else, could stop her.


	2. It Wasn't the Cake

"Minerva, please open the door."

"How about _no_?"

Cyrus let out a hardened sigh as he was positioned outside of the girl's door. Unfortunetly, she was very stubborn, and Cyrus knew that it was going to take a lot of effort to make her come out again. Mina was on the other end of the door, pacing as her mind raced of everything she knew. A song played on the radio that illustrated her anger quite nicely, inspiring her to make a mess of everything while her vision swam in darkness.

"The only effective way we can communicate is if you open the door." Cyrus informed her, attempting to coax her. There was no answer and he wouldn't get one any time soon- and Cyrus knew it well. She wasn't his daughter after all.

"Alright then." Cyrus then said, feeling a bit crestfallen, "If that's how things are going to be Minerva- I understand. Kai would have done everything he could to protect you, and I felt confident that you would have done the same..."

Cyrus turned his wheelchair around and started leave.

"Perhaps I was wrong." Cyrus mumbled before pushing his wheelchair away.

On the other end, Mina pressed her forehead against the door. She knew Cyrus was right, and the idea hurt her more than her past.

"I'm sorry..." Mina mumbled as she slowly started to sink to the ground.

. . .

She made sure no one was around before activating the Time Window again. From there, she watched as the orb of light make the right connections so she could see the red ninja again. Kai, as his name was, and she watched him as he made about his life without realization that someone in the future was glaring at him with intent.

Unknown to her, Alice came into the room and put an assuring hand on her shoulder. It was safe to say that Mina jumped several inches off the ground as she craned her neck up to look at her friend.

"You scared the brick out of me Alice!" Mina told her friend with a stern anger.

"I apologize for provoking such a fright that you felt the need to use profane words." Alice then said, sounding apologetic enough, "But you are in a distress that normally calls for the comfort of friends."

Mina looked the android over as if she suddenly decided to speak another language.

"I don't need anyone right now." Mina told Alice calmly with a death glare. Alice looked back at Mina with a confused little look before turning her attention to the Time Window.

"Two weeks." Alice said. "They have been missing for two weeks and you feel... remorse?"

"Alice, you wouldn't understand. Can you please just leave me alone?"

"You think he lied to you. You think he abandoned you and left Mr. Borg to do the dirty work for him. You think you need answers but you have no idea where to look. I know and understand a lot more than what you think I do Mina, and it is because we are friends- knowing each other's problems and seeking solutions are what friends do."

Mina gave Alice a rather surprised look.

"I will stay." Alice told Mina in an affirming tone. To prove her point, Alice sat next to Mina and waited for a rebuttal of refusal- but it didn't come. Instead, Mina gave her friend a rather ambiguous look.

"Thank you." Mina softly admitted. Alice's face beamed at the acceptance.

. . .

 _ **Present Day**_

. . .

"No, it can't be true!" Jay wailed. "There's no way I'm going to be bald by the time I'm forty!"

"The cards have predicted so, therefore it will happen." Neuro said calmly.

"Pfft, whatever." Jay then said with a flick of his wrist, "I knew the Master of the Mind wasn't the Master of Predicting the Future."

"Then why did you ask?" Neuro teased. Jay cringed- that... was a fair question...

"I believe your prediction Neuro." Skylor told Neuro, giving Jay a defiant smile.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Didn't your father ever tell you that the peanut gallery is silent?!" Jay spat.

"Until they find a weapon." Skylor shot back with a chuckle. Next to her, Cole, Kai, and Lloyd chuckled a bit as well- Zane took a moment to process the idea of the joking torment, then let out a small laughter as well. Jay shot them all a rather hard look.

"Would one of you like to go next?" Jay asked in an angered tone. "I'd like to see what baloney Neuro can come up for you guys!"

"It's not baloney if you believe it." Neuro told Jay.

"I didn't say I believe it!" Jay thundered.

"Then I suggest working on not getting so stressed over something you do not believe in." Neuro said, "If you keep it up, you may not have any hair by the time you're thirty."

"I'll go next." Lloyd said, pushing Jay out of his seat before the blue ninja attacked Neuro.

"Ah, the legendary Green Ninja." Neuro mused as if accepting a challenge. "Where do you want be to view?"

"Surprise me." Lloyd said with an unsuspecting smile.

Neuro raised an eyebrow but accepting the request. The Master of Mind then closed his eyes and concentrated.

"I see... a hidden stress." Neuro told Lloyd. "I do not understand why- you have a very healthy relationship with your friends. No... it's not your friends, the stress lies with your family. The inherited responsibility... the burdens of your parents' mistakes... you feel as if they could pass on to you. Again, I do not understand why, you are not seeking a partner- even when one sparks your interest."

"Wait," Kai butt in, "Lloyd has a crush on someone?"

"Bet it's that cute waitress we met the other day." Jay added.

"I told you guys, I didn't find her attractive." Lloyd said in a effort to defend himself although his cheeks had started to flush red. It was from embarrassment, but that didn't stop his friends from thinking otherwise.

"Sure you didn't buddy." Cole teased.

"You guys don't listen very well, do you?" Skylor asked, not sure whether to be amused or annoyed. "You're the only idiots I know of that at the mere mention of _thinking_ about a romantic relationship is equal to getting married the next day."

"I'm sorry Miss Skylor, but the interwebs would like to have a chat with you." Jay replied with a smirk. Before Skylor could give a rebuttal, the earth started to shake faintly and a light from outside glowed brighter than the lights indoors.

"What the...?"

Out of instinct and curiosity, Lloyd, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane walked over to the light. When they were close, the light started to brighten and brighten until the five ninja had to cover their eyes from the harsh light. Slowly the light started to die out enough that the five could uncover their eyes. But something was different.

"Anyone else feel sick?" Cole moaned as everyone looked around.

"Maybe it was from all that cake you ate." Jay joked. "Told you it went bad."

"I do not think bad cake is what you need to be concerned about right now." Zane told them. Cole and Jay turned around to find that, instead of Skylor, Neuro, and a small handful of other Elemental Masters at the small pizzeria, a group of children in the middle of a birthday party stared back at them.

"I have a feeling we are no longer in the Ninjago we know." Zane said as they started to back away from the angry looking party kids.

"Get them!" the kid with the birthday crown on shouted. Without another warning, the ninja ran for their lives.


	3. Is It Someone New?

"The Time Window stopped working." Mina said in an effort not to panic. A good five minutes beforehand, she and Alice were sliding on the steel floor in their socks. It had been rather fun, except Mina accidentally ran into the machine operating the Time Window. The machine started to make a funny sound, then the earth started to shake- now Mina feared Cyrus coming into the room any minute now to ask what was going on to find her red handed.

"Alice, get away from the window and come help me!" Mina frantically said as she look at the machine's console with no clue where to begin.

"I think that the activities occurring outside would be more of interest to you." Alice said. Confused, Mina stopped looking at the console and went to the window to see what Alice was looking at.

"Son of a..." Mina started to say, but cut herself off. Outside, five undeniable young men in their distinctive colors interwoven in their street clothes were being chased by a hoard of angry kids.

"This plot is not very kind to you, is it?" Alice noted.

"And I have a feeling it's not going to get better." Mina said before turning on her heel. "Come on, we have to get them before they get hurt. Or worse- Cyrus finds out."

. . .

"What did they _feed_ these kids?!" Cole demanded after taking a look back to see the unrelenting party kids still chasing them. "They're still after us!"

"Mass quantities of disaccharide sucrose?" Zane guessed.

"This isn't a normal sugar rush Zane!" Jay shouted. "If it was, we'd be home free by now!"

"I don't know, you haven't gone through a sugar rush the way I have." Lloyd told Jay. "The Skulkin couldn't keep up with me for a good six hours before I finally crashed."

"Can we concentrate on running before a hoard of twerps catch up with us?" Kai demanded.

"Right!" the other four agreed as they continued to run. That is, until they started to come to a fork in the road. With split second thought, Jay, Cole, Zane, and Kai went down the right path and Lloyd ended up going down the left path. The angry mob of kids did not notice Lloyd's choice in direction and instead went after the other four. Not noticing that Lloyd had been separated, the four ninja continued to run until they came to a dead end.

"Great." Jay said unhappily as the four turned around to face the hoard of children. "Now what?"

Quickly looking around, Zane saw a fire escape and gave a small smile at the solution.

"Up." the Nindroid told them, pointing to the fire escape.

"Perfect plan Zane!" Cole agreed as the ninja started to get up on the fire escape ladder, which was too high up for the kids to reach. Once the four of them were safely out of the angry kids' way, Jay turned around and gave them a raspberry before continuing to climb up to the roof with the rest of the ninja. From there, the ninja got a better view of the city- and it was when they realized that they certainly not in the Ninjago they knew anymore.

Fluttering through the air, a newspaper drifted around Cole's ankle. Out of curiosity, Cole picked the newspaper up and read the headline and the date.

"Hey guys..." Cole started to say, his face slowly draining of color, "Please tell me the date on the newspaper isn't what I think it is..."

. . .

Meanwhile, Mina and Alice were on foot in an attempt to catch up with the ninja.

"They split up." Alice informed Mina in a short tone.

"What?!" Mina said, almost so shocked that she stopped running. Alice nodded.

"Lloyd has taken another path than the others." Alice told Mina in a affirmative tone. "The others are now safe at the top of Mystake's Tea Oddities, but the path Lloyd chose..."

Mina groaned with an angered realization. In her disbelief she ended up running over someone and they both collapsed to the ground with a terrible thud.

"Sorry..." Mina mumbled as Alice helped her stand up again. "Next time watch were you're going."

"Of all the welcomes I expected, I did not think you would choose a fairly rude one." a familiar voice told her from the person she had bumped into. Mina looked up and instantly recognized who she had run into.

"Monty?" she said in surprise, but not at all remorseful.

"If it would kill you to say hello, I suppose I could start first; hello Minerva."

Sure enough, Mina had run into Montgomery. The older teen wore circular wire frame glasses that were fully visible between strands of his bowl cut black hair. Montgomery dressed like a cross between a business man and a high school chess nerd with an argyle sweater vest and ironed white dress pants. Montgomery was alone either, with him was an older woman with a crisp, short hair cut and dressed in a red dress with a black sash adorned with a blue holographic phoenix design.

"Miss Nya!" Alice exclaimed happily to the woman. "It is quite a surprise to see you here! Are you the reason why Montgomery has came back earlier from his mechanical refinery seminar?"

"Why yes, actually!" Nya agreed with a kind smile, showing the faint lines of crow's feet. "I don't know why Montgomery wanted to go to that class, he knew everything the teacher discussed!"

"I told you Mother," Montgomery said in a firm tone, "I enjoy the way he explained the process- you didn't need to pull me out so early."

"Alice," Mina spoke up, "We have somewhere to be, remember?"

"Where?" Nya inquired with curiosity. "Must be pretty important, I can't remember the last time you ran so quickly for something you couldn't see what was in front of you."

"We're following the five Legendary Ninjas!" Alice happily told Nya without a single thought- Mina slapped her forehead in disbelief. "Lloyd was separated from the rest of the group and is about to get mugged soon if we don't go help!"

"Lloyd...?" Nya asked, as if it was a made up name. "Are you sure?"

"Yep." Alice agreed. "He -along with Cole, Jay, Kai, and Zane- traveled from the past into the future, which is now our present because of a new machine Cyrus created that could open a hole in the space time continuum, but they interrupted a birthday party and were chased by a mob of very angry children and they were separated, now Cole, Kai, Jay, and Zane are safe on top of Mystake's Tea Oddities but Lloyd is going to be mugged by illegal Spinjitzu practitioners who will totally whip his butt to the point that he won't be able to go back to the past so that Mina would exist and the entire space time continuum would be destroyed in a blink of the eye!"

Nya stared at the android for a moment, then shook her head as if to erase the long speech out of her mind.

"You two get Lloyd and bring him to Borg Industries as unharmed as you can, Montgomery and I will get the others." Nya instructed Alice and Mina. With a nod, the two girls were off to rescue the Green Ninja.

. . .

Lloyd wasn't an idiot, he knew he was lost. Before, he did try to go back the way he came when he realized he wasn't with the rest of the group- but that seemed to only get him more lost than what he was.

"On the wrong side 'o the tracks, ain't we?" a voice said from behind him. Lloyd whirled around to see two thugs coming toward him with wide, smug smiles.

"I don't want to hurt anyone." Lloyd told them, holding his hands in the air to show innocence.

"Oh don' worry, we ain't the ones tha's gonna hurt." a thug told him. With that note, to Lloyd's surprise, the thugs then performed perfect Spinjitzu to maim Lloyd in every place imaginable on his body. One thug succeeded to pick Lloyd up and toss him across the alleyway and into a brick wall. Lloyd groaned in pain as he fell to the ground in a heap. Defenseless and stunned on the ground, Lloyd flinched as the thugs started to move closer toward him to finish him off. But something happened- a thug hit the ground in unison with the sound of a steel pipe being knocked against a head. The other thug turned to fight back, but was also struck hard with a steel pipe before he could defend himself. Lloyd barely managed to open his eyes to see someone peering over him. A young woman looked at Lloyd curiously as colors started to swim and blur in his mind from the force of being thrown against the wall at a high velocity.

"M... Mom...?" Lloyd mumbled as his vision started to fade into black. The young woman placed a shaking hand on his head carefully as Lloyd finally lost consciousness.

"Don't worry..." she softly said through the darkness, "You're safe now."


	4. Sounds Legit

The pain in Lloyd's head was so indescribable that he couldn't even bother to begin opening his eyes.

"B-but Nya...!" Lloyd could hear someone say that resembled Kai's voice, "You're so... old...!"

 _Really_? After being knocked unconscious by a bunch of thugs that knew Spinjitzu, and _this_ is what Lloyd wakes up to hearing?

"Guess I'm your big sister now." a voice that resembled Nya's chimed playfully.

"Don't even go there!" Kai's voice warned. "I am still your older brother, even if you look... older... now..."

Nya laughed, along with a few others that apparently were in the room too.

"So when's the Legendary Golden Sleeper gonna wake up?" a voice Lloyd did not recognize asked.

"Kass don't be rude." Nya's voice sternly instructed as the sound of someone getting smacked on the head was heard.

"What I'm _saying_ , is that he could at least grunt or something to let us know he's still alive or something. It's not like we decided to hook him up to some machine that would tell us that."

That actually didn't sound like a bad idea- using some effort, Lloyd let out a groan as he attempted to sit up. In almost an instant, where ever he was, everyone was silent as they saw Lloyd slowly attempt to sit up. With some more effort, Lloyd began to open his eyes. A good inspection of the room detailed that Cole, Kai, Zane, and Jay were also there but so was an older looking Nya and Cyrus Borg. Then there were five people Lloyd couldn't easily recognize, but his friends could recognize him well enough.

"Lloyd!" all four of them exclaimed at the same time before running to give Lloyd a relieved hug.

"Dude, we thought we lost you!" Cole told Lloyd.

"Well... technically, we did." Zane said.

"We thought you were a goner." Kai told Lloyd, correcting Cole's sentence.

"But then we ran into Nya!" Jay added, "And she looks..."

"Watch it." Nya warned- her face illustrating that she did not want Jay to use the word he was thinking of.

"More beautiful with age." Jay then said. "And that doesn't even scratch the surface!"

"What else is there?" Lloyd asked, feeling rather confused that Nya and Cyrus would sudden look like they aged thirty years overnight.

"We're in the future!" the four ninja said together. Lloyd just stared at them.

"What." he said in a flat tone underlined with disbelief.

"Look." Cole told him, giving Lloyd a newspaper that had been found earlier. Giving his friends a wary glance, Lloyd looked at the date and found that it was dated thirty years into the future.

"But that isn't all." Zane informed Lloyd.

"It's not?" Lloyd asked, almost feeling like the guys were playing an elaborate prank on him.

"Oh, do I get to introduce everyone?" one of the people Lloyd did not recognize spoke up with a bubbly voice. No one openly objected, so the excitable one continued;

"Hello Mr Lloyd!" she said, giving Lloyd an overly enthused wave, "I am Artificial Life in a Child's Ethnic, better known as Alice. My primary directive is to simulate the growth and development of an adolescent female- I was created by Mr Borg about five years ago, almost six years now!"

"Hello Alice." Lloyd greeted carefully. Alice beamed at having her name said by the Legendary Gold Ninja, then turned to a boy taller than her that looked a little worse than wear.

"This is Captain Hyun." Alice told Lloyd in a deep voice to show authority. "He operates what you know as the Destiny's Bounty, and is _very_ funny. He likes to give all of us nicknames- he even nicknamed himself! We all call him Cap because that's his nickname and it sounds _so_ funny!"

"Pleasure to meet you." Cap said to Lloyd with a nod. Lloyd nodded back, still sure that his friends were playing a joke on him.

"This is Kass." Alice then told Lloyd, moving to a teen whose hair could have rivaled the shagginess of Cole's hair. "Kass is a longtime fan of your friend Cole- last summer he even found out that they were related!"

"Really?" Lloyd asked, almost certain now that this was a hoax.

"Three or six times removed." Kass confirmed. "But who's counting when you can call a famous ninja your cousin and not be lying about it?"

Finally, all the attention went to the last to be introduced. Alice's face lit up at the prospect of introducing the last one, but the teen remained silent and refused to look at him. Or... anyone really.

"That's Mina." Alice chirped, introducing the mouse-haired girl for her. "She's my bestest friend in the world and the heir of..."

"Alice." the girl snapped in a dark tone. "We agreed earlier; no one needs to know anything else."

Alice looked at Mina with a bit of surprise (mostly due to forgetting about their previous discussion), but nodded to show she understood.

"She's very special." Alice told Lloyd with a playful wink.

"You were the one that saved me. Weren't you?" Lloyd asked, realizing that he recognized her. Mina did not acknowledge him, but Alice answered for her.

"She did! And it was so cool too, you should have seen it from where I was standing!"

Carefully starting to get up, Lloyd went to approach Mina, almost forcing her to look at him.

"Thank you." he told her calmly. "Without you, I wouldn't have been able to made it back to my friends."

Mina did not say anything, although it was apparent she wanted to, but she held her thoughts back and only stared at him.

"Who's hungry?" Cap asked, cutting in to the unneeded tension being created by Mina.

"Oh, oh, I am!" Cole said.

"Wonderful! If you lot would just follow me to the cafeteria, of course."

"Already on it!"

As everyone else left, Mina and Lloyd did not break eye contact.

"You should go." Mina told Lloyd curtly.

"I'm not going anywhere without you." Lloyd replied calmly.

"I know my way around this place, you do not have the advantage." Mina said back.

"Maybe I want you to take me the long way around." Lloyd suggested. Mina's gaze became dark and cold at the idea.

"I'm not going without you." Lloyd repeated, this time with honesty. In an unexpected turn of events, Mina's eyes started to gloss over with tears. Lloyd, in turn, grew concerned. Was it something he said?

From the doorway, Cyrus was observing the conversation and frowned.

"Lloyd," Cyrus then said as he moved his wheelchair closer to the two, "Go follow the others before they get too far, I would like to talk to Minerva alone."

"Yes, go, like I told you." Mina hissed to Lloyd. Lloyd looked at her, not seeing why she had any reason to be so angry at him- but with a look at Cyrus, Lloyd did as he was told and quickly went to follow the others.

Not for a moment could Lloyd begin to fathom why Mina had been so cold toward him. Maybe he'd find out later -a slip during conversation, or maybe when they got to know each other better- but for now Lloyd had to admit one thing; he was _very_ hungry.

Cyrus and Mina, however, were not going to have such a great time.

"You did not need to be so rude to him." Cyrus told Mina.

"He's related to me- isn't he?" Mina asked in turn. Cyrus gave Mina a look that was a mix between surprise and confusion. Mina noticed this, and felt her vision swim in a pool of darkness as her head started to feel light.

"Who is he?" Mina asked, her voice barely audible. Cyrus looked at her, and for a moment was unsure of what to say.

"He..." Cyrus started to say, but soon found that it was hard to finish, "Lloyd is..."

"He's the one that gave me up." Mina softly realized. "Lloyd- the Green Ninja- is my... my dad...?"

Cyrus closed his eyes, but nodded.

"Bringing you into Kai's care was a safeguard." Cyrus calmly told Mina as she slowly lost comprehension of the world around her. "Lloyd knew that he likely wasn't going to come back, and as we feared he was declared missing. When we couldn't find him, Lloyd's fate was decided as... fatal, as you know. I... I'm very sorry you had to learn this news in one of the worst ways possible, especially with the likelihood that Kai and the others from our time line will soon be declared gone when no one can find them. But... the world must turn I'm afraid."

Mina took a step back, almost feeling like she was going to fall over.

"I'm not coming to dinner." Mina said in a whisper. "I... I'm not very hungry."

"Of course." Cyrus agreed dimly. "I'll see you in the morning."


	5. Dinner, and a Lost Soul

"This is _so_ good!" Cole said between munches as he scarfed down the food in front of him. "Do you have any cake?"

"Chocolate, vanilla, devil's food, red velvet or confetti?" Cap asked.

"All of them!" Cole said happily as he continued to eat.

"Sure thing boss!" Cap agreed with a nod before heading back into the kitchen to start cooking.

"This stuff's pretty good." Kai agreed as he ate his dinner. "Does Cap really make all of it himself?"

"Indeed." Cyrus informed them. "Cap's father was a well known chef, but Cap wanted to be in charge of a cargo ship or something similar instead of following in his father's footsteps. His father wasn't too eager on the idea, but with some convincing, Cap was able to go from port to port selling and trading goods to those who needed it."

"When did he come in possession of the Destiny's Bounty?" Zane inquired.

"It was around four years ago." Cyrus decided.

" _I_ was the one that allowed him to use it." Nya added. "Something unexpected happened in this time line that made me want to keep the Bounty close and within my reach. But Cap proved to me he could keep it safe."

"But why would you just give the Bounty up?" Jay spoke up, using a rather hurt tone, "It's practically our home!"

"Who said I gave it up?" Nya snapped at him, albeit unintentionally. Jay shrunk a little from her outburst, but seeing she had scared him, Nya had felt some remorse and recoiled a bit. With a heavy sigh, she continued; "You five don't understand- something really, really _bad_ happened in this time line sixteen years ago. There were riots, false Overlord sightings, and gas prices shot up like a rocket- nearly everyone in Ninjago was in a serious state of panic that no one could calm down, the Elemental Masters combined couldn't keep the mass public down. Even now people still talk about what happened as if it occurred yesterday, and with other events that have happened recently... it doesn't look very good."

On that heavy note, everyone went silent and slowly ate their dinner in silence. Until Cap came back out with cake, unto which Cole happily began to devour the moist delights and everyone soon went back to having a good mood.

"So Montgomery," Jay spoke up, "What's your dad like? I'm sure your love of machines and amazing prowess on building them came from your father, right?"

"No way!" Cole interjected, knowing what Jay was doing, "I bet Monty got his good looks from his own handsome father! Didn't you Monty?"

For a moment, Montgomery wasn't sure how to answer.

"I do believe that I can not tell you anything about the subject." the teen said as he adjusted his glasses a bit. "Mother, what do you think?"

Cole and Jay snapped their heads around to look at Nya. The woman looking as if she had been waiting for the moment to pop up, gave a smile that looked as mysterious as it was mischievous.

"Let's just say," Nya started, unable to hide her smile, "When you two get back, you'll have about ten years to figure it out before the announcements are made."

Jay and Cole looked at each other and snarled at the other. Nya took all that she could to not laugh at them while Montgomery gave her a wary glance.

"Mother, you do realize that this could effect the space time continuum, don't you?" Montgomery asked in a low tone so Jay and Cole could not hear.

"I know." Nya admitted. "But the time stream's already corrupted enough because of this plot- I figure we might as well get some fun out of it while we can. Besides, _I_ know who did their laundry that week."

Montgomery raised an eyebrow at his mother's secret plotting, but shrugged it off. From across the way, Lloyd ate in silence as everyone else decided to engage in idle chatter to keep their minds off the true situation at hand. Cyrus noticed that Lloyd appeared to be deep in thought. Eventually, Lloyd could feel the look Cyrus was giving him and looked up at the old ally to realize he could ask what he was thinking.

"Isn't Mina going to have dinner?" Lloyd asked Cyrus. The old man shook his head.

"Mina has undergone much stress over the past few days." Cyrus told Lloyd in a lowered tone. "Like Nya mentioned earlier, the events in this time line are not quite ideal. It can take a lot out of someone who is directly effected to it like Mina is. It's not your fault that she is taking out the stress she feels on you- you remind her of someone she once knew, someone that holds a great influence in her life, so when she sees you she becomes confused. Mina just... needs some time alone. That's all."

Lloyd looked at Cyrus, feeling rather unsure but he nodded to show he understood.

. . .

Sometime after dinner, Cyrus took the ninja to a temporary place for them to stay while he adjusted the Time Window to bring them back into the past. Kass, Nya with Montgomery, and Cap all headed for home while Alice bid farewell to the group for the night as well.

"You have apartments in this building too?!" Cole exclaimed when Cyrus showed them the room they were going to stay in. The room was almost like a mini apartment itself with five separate doors going into separate bedrooms, a living room area with a wide plasma screen TV, and a space large enough for the ninja to train in. It was safe to say that all five of them had their jaws dropped in awe.

"Not all of my rooms have to be filled to the brim with gadgets and advanced technology." Cyrus joked, letting out a chuckle. "Although in all honestly, I did not have much need for apartments within the facility until recently; Mina is the only one who consistently spends the night. Not that she has much of a choice..."

"Where does she sleep?" Lloyd inquired curiously as the others walked around their living quarters.

"Across the hall from my own room." Cyrus informed Lloyd without a second thought. "It's much smaller than the one you ninja will be staying in, but it suits her and her needs quite splendidly. I've spoiled her quite a bit since she came into my care- just don't tell anyone I've said that though."

Lloyd gave Cyrus a nod to show he understood as he let out a little chuckle at Cyrus's attempt to avoid conflict.

Just give her some time, then she'll open up. Maybe...

. . .

It was well past midnight when Mina decided that insomnia was the reason why she wasn't going to sleep. There wasn't much to do in the massive building when everyone else was fast asleep, so Mina picked a book out from her bookshelf and started to read it as she paced back and forth to keep her mind off of the true reason why she wasn't sleeping.

"But how do we find a home when we are lost in the world?" Mina read as if giving dictation, "Why do we fight for something when we can not say we believe in it? Who would we fight for if we had the chance; a friend? A brother? A wife? A son? A grandchild? We keep them close, but for what reason? What purpose do they serve us when all they cause is heartbreak and disappointment?

"More often times than none, we come to the same conclusion every time, although we are afraid to admit it; we need them more than they need us. And how true this statement is when the one you love no longer loves you, or when you look back and realize that you could have done so much more to keep them happy. Maybe you could have kept them longer- maybe your life would have been completely different. Only one thing sticks in your mind that is the one thing no one can take away from you; the impression they made within you."

Mina stopped reading to think about what she had read. Out of curiosity, she looked at the clock. The bland red numbers informed her that it was only half past twelve. Her mind suddenly switched to auto pilot as Mina found herself going down the hallway to the room where the ninja were staying. Quietly, acting like a ninja in her own right, Mina opened the door and quickly located the room where Kai was sleeping. From there, she walked over to his bed and just stared at him like an empty ghost... or a stalker.

A part of her wanted to crawl in bed with him, just like she used to do with the Kai she knew when she was only a few feet high. What a bad idea that would have been, but the urge to regress in age and hope this Kai would understand her distress was stronger than any call to addiction. Heart heavy, and in desperate need to be hugged, Mina slowly walked out of his room and sat on the sofa the ninjas' guest room had. Little did she know she wasn't the only one awake, nor the only one being a stalker at the moment, but that didn't stop her from curling herself up into a ball and holding the book close to her for protection.

"What are you reading?" a calm voice asked her from behind. Surprised, Mina let out a squeak of terror as she held the book up in front of her face as an act of protection. Getting herself together, Mina cautiously looked up and saw Zane looking at her inquisitively. Mina looked at the book, then turned around to give it to Zane- who then proceeded to read the cover title.

"Dark Lord to Sensei, Banishment to Freedom; the Memoirs of Elemental Master Garmadon." Zane read slowly. He then looked at Mina, giving a rather gentle smile. "Is it your favorite?"

Unsure of whether she should speak or not, Mina nodded her head. To her horror, Zane took it as a cue to sit down next to her.

"Would you mind telling me about it?" he then asked.

Yes, she would mind. But he wasn't going to leave any time soon either, so really, she didn't have much of a choice...


	6. Secret Keeper

Mina watched as Zane looked over the cover of the book with interest as if it were the only contents the book had in it. It was practically unnerving for her, but she kept silent.

"I would not think that Sensei Garmadon would be one to write a memoir." Zane said, sounding as if he was speaking a thought.

"There were a lot of unauthorized biographies." Mina told Zane in a quiet voice. "But this particular book was written by him, and it's the only one known to exist."

"Oh?" Zane inquired with interest. Mina gave a small nod and refused to look him in the eye.

"Gran Mi gave it to me on my birthday. She said that when he finished writing, he passed away with a smile."

"That sounds very poetic." Zane remarked with a kind smile. "Is that why you like it?"

Mina shook her head.

"No."

"Then why, if you do not mind me asking?"

For awhile, Mina went silent. Zane patiently waited, looking at her with a very trusting expression and with no thought of making fun of her in any way.

"I've read it cover to cover so many times..." Mina started to say, "But every time, it feels as though... it feels like it was written just for me. It's like he addressed it to me in hopes that... I dunno... like he'd know I'd need that wisdom some day."

"All the best books come off that way." Zane told her. "That simply means that you truly enjoy it."

Mina grimaced, feeling as if Zane was not understanding what she was telling him.

"Right." Mina said quietly as she started to get up. "I'll... just be going then."

"I understand." Zane agreed, who remained where he sat to Mina's delight. "But I wish to tell you one more thing before you return to your room."

"What?" Mina asked, a certain shot of fear going through her veins.

"If you would like, I shall 'maintain the crooked road' so that we may lead back here. I will memorize every curve that was a lesson in direction so that we can grow to this outcome. I sense that you are quite influential in this time line, and so it is with your permission that I learn what I can so it may be kept in history. Or not, if you prefer."

Mina looked Zane over, not sure whether he was being serious or not. He was practically asking to change the future, whether it ended up having a better consequence or not. The mere thought tempted her- everything she knew at the moment would have meant nothing, in another universe she _didn't_ have to feel this pain. In another universe she could have had... she could have had them both.

"I'll let you think about it." Zane then said kindly. "For now, I do think you should try to get some sleep."

Sounding like a fairly decent idea, Mina nodded her head and headed back to her room.

"Thanks... Zane." she said before quietly shutting the door behind her. "I'll think about it..."

. . .

"I've run a diagnostic on the Time Window for modifications," Cyrus told the five ninja at breakfast, "It would take around three weeks to a month to modify the machine to send you back into your own time line."

"Three weeks?!" Cole asked as he ate.

"At minimum." Cyrus agreed.

"What if we do that thing were we meet our other selves and the time whatever resets itself?" Jay asked, almost sounding like he was about to freak out.

"I'm fairly sure that you will not meet your future selves within the next three weeks." Cyrus informed them, a certain sadness laced in his voice that served as a hint.

"Where are we?" Lloyd inquired, catching on to the idea that something was not right. "In the future, I mean."

"Far, far away." Cyrus said shortly in a distant tone. "And that's all any of you need to know right now."

The five ninja gave Cyrus an odd look as they thought about what he said- if there ever was a sign that there was more to the story than what was led on...

Interrupting their thoughts, the door to the kitchen flew open and in walked Mina as she mumbled some song she knew to herself. Her hair was down, revealing that she had naturally loose curls that hung behind her without the aid of a headband.

"Good morning Minerva." Cyrus greeted. "How did you sleep? I can only guess that it was fairly decent when you wake up on the right side as always."

Mina opened her mouth, ready to answer, before she looked up and saw Lloyd, Kai, Jay, Cole, and Zane sitting at the table and jumped a good foot away in surprise. Her face grew pale as she realized that the events that transpired the day before weren't part of a bad dream gone on for too long.

"I'm going back to bed." Mina declared as she spun on her heel to walk right back out the door.

"No, wait!" Cole called out to her, "You can't let me eat all this food alone! I could, and I might, but you need to at least try something!"

At the door, Mina stood frozen. Eventually, she started to back up and walk back over to the table.

"Here." Cole said, moving a plate her way with pancakes smothered in sticky maple syrup and eggs on the side. "Eat up kid."

A small grimace made its way onto Mina's face as she unwillingly took a fork and started to eat. A few bites and Mina put the fork back down as if she were a snobbish queen about to deliver bad news.

"Cap didn't make this." she decided. "Who did?"

"I did." Zane told her. "Do you like it?"

"You forgot the chocolate chips."

"I had a certain feeling that you are not particularly fond of having chocolate chips in your pancakes, so instead I added a bit more brown sugar than recommended. Was it not as you desired?"

"It... is actually pretty good. Thanks."

A small smile exchanged between the two- giving everyone an almost uncomfortable feeling that something had happened between the two of them earlier. Lloyd in particular felt a rather tinge of jealousy, but wasn't quite sure why yet.

Interrupting their thoughts, however, there soon came a small tap on the window. Everyone looked up to see a rather familiar robotic bird tap its beak against the window to be let in.

"Crow!" Mina exclaimed joyfully as she nearly leaped out of her chair. The five ninja looked at each other with the same confused look.

"Crow?" they all asked with a tone that matched their expression. Perfectly ignoring them all, Mina opened up the window to let the robotic bird in. Without warning, the Falcon soared to every corner of the kitchen, knocking over everything that happened to be in the way before settling down on Zane's shoulder.

"Well, hello old friend." Zane said as the robotic bird then perched on Zane's extended hand. "You seem rather perplexed, is everything alright?"

The Falcon let off a small electromagnetic pulse that Zane was able to translate into a message of its current objectives. When all of the messages were decoded, Zane frowned.

"You don't say...?" Zane asked warily, addressing the robotic bird as if it were speaking a riddle.

"Crow, come here." Mina then said, "What did you find?"

"Are we not going to address the fact that she keeps calling the Falcon, Crow?" Jay asked although speaking to no one in particular. Perfectly ignoring him, Mina offered her hand for the robotic bird to perch on but it remained on Zane. Slowly, Mina started to worry but didn't take direct action.

"Crow..." Mina said again, this time with a bit of worry laced in her voice, "You do have news, don't you?"

"Minerva, our Falcon friend believes he completed his objective." Zane informed her.

"What objective?" Cole asked, to which the other four agreed. Mina did not seem to answer as she stood frozen, almost paralyzed in a visible fear. Cyrus moved his wheelchair close to Mina, standing by in the case she would fall.

"Crow..." Mina started to say, her voice small and barely heard, "Cyrus... Crow thought that..."

"Thought what?" Lloyd asked, also catching on to Mina's distress.

"May I tell them?" Zane asked. Cyrus, dumbfounded on what to do, looked at Mina. Cyrus looked back at Zane and nodded.

"Our old friend believes that he has found us, as Minerva instructed him to do three weeks ago." Zane informed them.

"How did she do that when we just got here?" Kai inquired.

"Not the ones I know." Mina mumbled as her eyes glossed over. "They're lost... gone..."

Mina turned to looked at Lloyd.

"Or..." she started to say, but upon looking at Lloyd, her words became lost in her throat.

"You see ninja," Cyrus told them, "Time rots everything... even hope. In this time line, Ninjago has lost hope in the ninja that once protected them because those ninja are no longer around. I'm afraid to tell you that, in this time line... you are all considered... dead."


	7. An Accumulation of Stress

The general tone among the ninja was unanimous.

"We can't be dead." Jay said.

"Yeah, we're too awesome to be dead!" Cole agreed.

"We've been through so much, what in Ninjago could kill _us_?!" Kai added.

"That's just it, _no one_ knows what caused you four to disappear on such short notice." Cyrus told them. "In terms of investigation and lack of evidence, everyone has comes to terms with the worse. Nya wasn't lying when she said this world is falling apart- and it's because of you four leaving when Ninjago was already suffering from a loss beforehand."

"What loss?" Lloyd questioned, almost already knowing -and fearing- the answer.

"Yours." Cyrus and Mina said at the same time, almost using the exact tone of voice.

"Wh... what happened?" Cole asked as everyone started to get the feeling they weren't going to like the answer. Neither Cyrus or Mina looked like they wanted to tell the ninja what had happened.

"Sixteen years ago," Mina spoke up, her voice cracking a little, "The Golden Ninja was called to the Island of Darkness by an unknown force, and for some reason he decided to go alone. That didn't stop his friends from trying to track him- and for the most part, it worked. Until he just... vanished."

"What do you mean 'vanish'? People just don't 'vanish' kid." Kai told her, growing a bit skeptical. Mina did not answer and almost instantly became catatonic again. Cyrus then filled in for her;

"When Nya and Zane were unable to locate Lloyd, everyone in Ninjago set out to find him. It was amazing at the time to see Ninjago in whole work together to find one man. However, it was to little prevail- Lloyd, as Mina had put it, vanished. There wasn't a trace of him to be found- it was almost like he never existed."

"What stopped you from going to the Dark Island to find him, if that was where he last was?" Zane inquired.

"That's just it," Cyrus explained, "No one could. Every time someone would go near the island, something would go horribly wrong and they would all come back in the worse for wear. After four years -with no real evidence, mind you- we all agreed that our worse fears had come true and that Lloyd was gone for good. And, for awhile, although Ninjago was scattered because we had lost one of the most influential leaders in our day- we had found a peace."

"Until...?" Cole asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Three weeks ago our Zane had claimed that he had found Lloyd's signal again, and without warning the remaining four of you went out to the Island of Darkness against all of our warnings. As with Lloyd before you, all four of you were declared missing the next day even though Nya kept an extremely close eye on you. She saw the moment when you all vanished off the radar- it was the moment we all knew the same fate had fallen upon you four like it had Lloyd before. It was the moment when Ninjago lost hope."

"Nya mentioned earlier that all of Ninjago was in a panic," Kai started to say, "Was it really because of us going missing?"

Cyrus nodded.

"I'm afraid that, when Ninjago hears that her best protectors are missing with no explanation, no one is able to feel safe any more."

"Including mass panic?" Jay asked.

"Including mass panic." Cyrus confirmed.

"Didn't anyone step up?" Lloyd asked. "Didn't anyone do anything to keep Ninjago protected so everyone could feel safe again?"

"There was this place," Cyrus began to say, shifting his wheelchair a bit to show discomfort, "Misako found it- and it was a place where one could undergo a series of tests to gain the First Spinjitzu Master's power in the case the last, that would have been you Lloyd, were to fall in battle or otherwise be unable to fulfill his duties."

"Did anyone pass the test?" Zane asked curiously.

"A better question would be 'did someone find the test' and the answer would be yes- someone did."

"Who?!" the ninja all asked at the same time.

" _She_ is standing right here." Cyrus told them, moving away a bit to give them a full view of the next holder of the Golden power.

"Mina?!"

"But... but she's a girl!" Jay said without thinking. "How did she pass a test that would have given away the Golden power just like that?!"

"Besides Jay being rude, he sort of has a point," Cole added, "How old is she any way? Doesn't the Golden power have, like, limits or something?"

"I, for one, believe that she should feel lucky," Zane told them, taking a rather neutral position, "Only one person in the world can have that kind ability and maintain it without endangering others."

"I wasn't supposed to have it..." Mina said in a tone so low and dark that it almost sent a chill up everyone's spine, "The Green Ninja was supposed to have it... not me."

"And yet, here we are." Jay sarcastically scoffed.

Lloyd did not say anything, but instead walked closer to Mina. Unconsciously, but it was an act to make her feel better- a pep talk he would have wanted when the greatest power was held at your fingertips and it seemed as if no one else understood. But when he got close enough, Mina snapped out of her catatonic state and jumped back away from him.

"Get away from me!" she demanded. "I didn't want your stupid power, and you didn't want me, so just _stay away_!"

Lloyd stopped for a moment and looked at her.

"I just want to help." Lloyd told her.

"I don't _need_ your help." she hissed back. "Haven't you caused enough anger and hurt in this world already?"

Lloyd looked at her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said, as he tried to put a hand on her shoulder, "But I'm telling you, if you would trust me, I can-"

Lloyd cut his sentence short when he managed to get a hold on her and a surge of power shot through the both of them like an electric current. Surprised, Lloyd let go of Mina as she jumped backward in midst of her own surprise. The duo looked at each other with the same amount of shock as the other before Mina's eyes started to roll to the top of her head and her body sagged as her mind shut down completely. Afraid to touch her, Lloyd remained where he was as Cyrus quickly rolled his wheelchair close enough so Mina's fainted body would land on his soft lap.

"What... just... happened...?!" Jay asked, feeling as confused as everyone else now.

Without an answer, the room fell silent as Cyrus tried to arrange Mina in a way better suited to bring her back to her room. In the silence, Lloyd looked at the hand that had touched her not a minute before. Did he do that? Or...

Or did _she_ do it?

. . .

"You broke my Mina!" Alice screeched to Lloyd as everyone arranged themselves in front of Mina's bedroom door. "What did you _do_?!"

"I don't know what happened!" Lloyd shouted back at her, trying to get her away from him. Say what you want about the crazy little android, but she sure had a grip on her.

"Alice, you need to calm down." Cap told the artificial girl in a stern, yet calming voice. "You're going to overheat soon if you don't start regulating your nanofluids again."

"Besides, it's not like she's alone in there acting like Sleeping Beauty." Kass agreed with a smirk. "She's got that bird with her..."

"YOU CAN NOT HUG A BIRD!" Alice thundered, causing everyone to back up from her a good foot. "I! AM! HER! FRIEND!"

"Sometimes friends need to stand back and allow the other to breathe." Montgomery told her calmly. "You know that, and you know you need to calm down before you overheat."

"I have a feeling that she's beyond the point of trying to calm down." Cole hissed quietly to Kai.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Alice screamed, getting extremely close to Cole's face within a nanosecond. The color drained from Cole's face just as quickly.

"Did I say something? I didn't say anything." Cole quickly said, throwing his hands in the air to give innocence. "Kai, did I say anything about Alice?"

"What?!" Kai said, jumping away from Cole, "Don't drag me into your mess!"

Alice growled at both of them, and they both shrunk a bit from the female android's intimidating power.

"We have all accumulated much stress over the past twenty-four hours." Zane then spoke up. "Perhaps, since we have three weeks, we should take today and just... relax."

Everyone looked at Zane as if he had suggested they all jump off a bridge. In reality though, there was enough uncertainty and anger around them that it felt as if they might as well...

"I agree." Lloyd said. "After knowing what happens... you know, in my future, I'm not as ready for the news as I thought I was."

Everyone looked at Lloyd, slowly started to agree. In a silent vote it was decided; time for a break.


	8. Still Revelant, No Filler Yet

The swirling dark images floating around in her mind wanted her to believe that all of it was just a bad dream- no matter how hard she tried though, she never seemed to be able to wake up on her own accord.

 _Did you feel the power he had as it coursed through your veins? Imagine having it all..._

"I don't want it!" Mina called out in the darkness, her voice not even making it past her lungs.

 _But you do- I know you do. Either way, I'm sure you'd like to keep your life... or the lack thereof._

"L-leave me alone!"

 _Ah, come now, stop pretending to be so fearless. You know that your power is only temporary- it only needs to be channeled back in a rather... interesting way. And he's here, is he not? He can take the Golden Power from you if you hate it so much. But, oh yes, that's right, you value your pitiful upbringings- or was it the uncaring caregiver? Remind me, which one was it again?_

"Go away! Just... just go away!"

 _If you wish... but remember, if you don't kill him, he'll certainly kill you first..._

. . .

Kass swung as hard as he could with the training sword in his hand and successfully chopped its head off in a single swoop.

"Don't focus all your energy into the swing." Cole told him. "You'll end up tiring yourself out quickly- and once you tire yourself out the enemy will have a chance to strike back."

"But..." Kass panted, already tired out from his swing, "Power is everything when taking down an enemy."

"Who on earth told you that?" Cole asked, giving the teen a rather confused glare.

"You did." came the answer with little shame or thought. From the sidelines, Jay and Kai snickered. Choosing his battles, Cole ignored them and kept his attention to Kass.

"Power won't mean a thing if you do not understand how to transfer it properly." Cole told the teen firmly, "What you are doing is only going to tire yourself out."

"You said that already." Kass noted as he started to swing the training sword up and down like it was a hand weight.

"I know that." Cole claimed. "And it's true."

"Then show me." Kass challenged as he tossed the training sword Cole's way. The Ninja of Earth caught it by the hilt with ease and without a flinch. Kass was impressed and tried hard to keep his enthusiasm contained- but it was hard, and a tiny crack on his lips etched into a smile.

"How about..." Cole started to say as he tested the training sword's weight by playing with it, "We spar instead?"

The sound that emitted from Kass's lips was equivalent to a devoted, yet slightly crazy, fangirl who saw her favorite character on a commercial announcing the next season of her favorite TV show.

"Y-you mean it?" Kass asked, almost unable to keep his voice low.

"This outta be good." Kai said from the sideline.

"Hey, do we have any popcorn?" Jay asked, ready for such a competition to take place. "I'm gonna root for the kid."

"You kidding? Cole's gonna show him up in two minutes tops!" Kai mused to Jay.

"No way!" Jay argued in a playful tone, "That kid's got potential, and it's going to show through the moment Cole breaks his concentration!"

"Pssht, sure." Kai jokingly scoffed. "Bet'cha twenty bucks Cole wins with a hand tied behind his back."

"Sounds like a challenge." Jay remarked. "I'm in!"

Cole smirked at Kass.

"Sounds like they're ready." Cole told the starstruck teen. "Are you?"

Kass looked at Cole for a moment with a rather dorky smile of admiration before changing it into a smirk.

"Bring it." Kass challenged.

With their blades connected, and after a formal count to five, Cole and Kass started to battle with Jay and Kai cheering them on.

. . .

Meanwhile, Montgomery, Nya, Cyrus, and Zane took a look at the Time Window in an effort to adjust what they needed to send the ninja of the past back to their respective time line.

"We need to find the cause of _why_ they were sent to our time line before we can figure how to send them back." Montgomery said. "Do you know if it was an influx of power Cyrus, or simply a random occurrence in the space time continuum that we could artificially manipulate?"

"I'm not too sure." Cyrus replied. "I wasn't able to observe the moment when the ninja were brought to our time line, all I know was that Mina and Alice had the machine on and Mina accidentally bumped into it. From there, I was told that the machine made an odd sound -like the sound of a plane motor by Alice's description- then in a bright flash originating from the machine, the girls found the ninja outside five minutes later."

"Sounds like a power influx." Montgomery said, mostly to himself as he adjusted his glasses. "However, simply bumping into the machine would not have caused a chain reaction to thrust the five ninja to this time line. Perhaps Minerva pressed a button that would have caused such an effect, but after observing the machine in every angle possible, a reaction like that wouldn't have been caused just by simply pressing a silly (and possibly unnecessary) red button."

Zane observed Montgomery as if the young man was making and drawing thoughts out as if he were composing the next greatest symphony. It was actually quite interesting to see, and Montgomery certainly knew what he was talking about as well. Nya looked over to Zane and bemused herself with the looks the Nindroid was giving her son.

"130." Nya whispered to Zane.

"What?" Zane asked, feeling as if he had missed a part of a conversation.

"130." Nya repeated. "That's Montgomery's IQ."

Zane looked at Nya before the connection clicked.

"Oh?" Zane asked, realizing and taking note that his cognitive thought processes were operating slower than usual. Nya noticed this as well but ignored it for the time being.

"I had him tested when he was thirteen, turns out the kid is a natural. I'm very pleased, considering how little his father was around until Montgomery was six."

"What did his father do?"

"He was a ninja, Zane. You know that." Nya told him with playful smile.

"So his father is one of us?" Zane inquired, interested now.

"Not you, if that's where this is going to start, I've got the stretch marks to prove it."

"I can understand that. Is it Lloyd then?"

"Just because I pay homage to our green friend in my child's name, it does not mean that he fathered him."

"You're really bringing this down to either Jay or Cole, aren't you?"

"Of course." Nya confirmed without shame. "The more they argued, the more I found it amusing so I just rolled with it. Once you know how to push those buttons, what stops you from actually doing it?"

"Do you become more bitter with age, or is it just the effects of this time line playing a toll on you too?" Zane asked rather seriously. To his surprise, Nya laughed.

. . .

Lloyd had segregated himself from everyone else to look in Cyrus's library and computers to find more information on the test that Mina was said to have taken. There wasn't much- it must have been rather recent news if Cyrus's records weren't as up to date as they could have been.

Unknown to him, someone else was in the record base with him observing his every action quietly and with curiosity.

"What are you looking for?" a bubbly voice asked from behind Lloyd, making him jump several feet in the air away from the console. Lloyd turned around to see that it had been Alice. Stunned, and afraid she was still angry, Lloyd did not say anything. Alice seemed to ignore this and looked at the computer console herself.

"Ah, the Trial of the Golden Master? Is that all?" Alice mused. "Gee, I could tell you about that no problem!"

"Y-you could...?" Lloyd asked, looking the artificial girl up and down with skepticism and a good ounce of fear. She was pretty dangerous earlier when she had lost her cool...

"Of course!" Alice agreed with a little hop. "The Trial of the Golden Master was not heard of until recently, you see, finding the temple where it all takes place is part of the trial itself!"

"Did you help Mina find the temple?" Lloyd asked curiously.

"No." Alice then said, her tone changing to a dark one in half a heartbeat. "That _bird_ was with her."

"Oh..." Lloyd said, watching Alice for the imminent flames that surely would have sprouted from her like an angry cartoon character. "Are there other parts to the Trial of the Golden Master?"

"Why yes actually." Alice agreed, her mood in turn taking a complete 180, an act that almost made Lloyd want to bolt away before she did it again. "As I mentioned earlier, finding the temple is part of the trial itself. The next part of the trial involves having the golden power forcefully sucked into you."

"Really?" Lloyd asked, flinching a bit. It didn't hurt when _he_ received the golden power...

"Yep." Alice confirmed, her smile unbroken. "This is where it gets tricky; you see, although one now has the golden power, they have to go through some kind of mind thing to overpower it. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell if someone passed this part of the trial or not."

"What happens in the mean time?" Lloyd asked.

"I do not know much about that," Alice admitted, "But I do know that if the two holders of the golden power come in contact, the stronger will absorb the other's power like fetus resportion."

"Like... like _what_?!"

"I advise you not to look it up- it's rather depressing."

"Alright." Lloyd agreed without question. "So... if I have this right- Mina has the golden power in her, but if she touches me one of us will end up dying, and we have no idea if she's passed the trial or not so that doesn't happen. Next thing I know someone's going to tell me that she's my daughter or something..."

"Actually," Alice chirped, her eyes even lighting up, "She is!"

Lloyd looked at Alice with a blank stare that had no idea which emotion to show. Alice smiled back at him with little shame or surprise at his reaction.

"She makes a fine Mary-Sue." Alice playfully told him. "Don't you think?"


	9. Are You an Oppa, or a Senpai?

_Get up, you can't lie comatose forever. Get up you waste of uncorrupted soul! Get... up!_

Mina groaned as she struggled to open her eyes. Between blurred vision and her own hesitance, she lazily looked around her room to see Cap standing by her bed.

"Good morning Minnie." he playfully said to her. Mina groaned as she slowly rolled over to get a pillow to hit him with.

"Call me that name again and only your head will make it out of the room." she said to him a drowsy tone as she attempted to swat at him with her pillow.

"Why are you always so violent when you wake up?" Cap joked, although she wasn't feeling it, "In another two minutes you'll be acting like you've been hopped up on too much caffeine."

Mina gave him a small half smile.

"Help me up." she told him, reaching her arms out for Cap to hold.

"You're so rude." Cap laughed at her, taking a hold on each of her hands, "No wonder your only friend is a mechanical bird."

The face she gave him was stripped of all emotions and illustrated that she did not find him funny at all. Her expression, however, was enough to make him laugh at her even more. Regardless, Cap dutifully helped Mina out of her bed and helped her stand on her feet again. Mina looked up at Cap.

"Thank you Oppa." she told him, almost meaning it.

"Would you like me to dress you too?" Cap then teased.

"No." came the short, now very irritated, answer. Cap couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright." he agreed. "Meet me outside the door later, Cyrus and and rest of them needed some parts from the hardware store to adjust the Time Window and I thought you'd like to come along."

"I'll still have to come back..." Mina mumbled.

"You'd be getting further away from this place than the ninja." Cap told her, letting out a small chuckle.

"Why?" Mina asked.

"Well," Cap started "Four of them just went missing not that long ago. Kai being one of them, mind you. They all walk out there and some how end up at Chen's Noodle Hut..."

"Skylor would take one look at Kai and she'd rip him to shreds...!" Mina realized.

"Exactly." Cap agreed. "Then there's Lloyd; he _could_ get away with walking out in the open... if it wasn't for the fact he's one of Ninjago's most famous, even if they no longer have an accurate photo of him, it still wouldn't be a wise idea."

Mina nodded in agreement. So if she wanted to pretend that everything was the way it was supposed to be...

"I'll meet you outside in five minutes." she told Cap. The older teen nodded and left the room so she could get changed.

. . .

"If you try to ask the associate about the capacitor, they're likely to tell you that it is primarily T-shaped. That is a completely fallacy; everyone knows that the capacitor takes on a more stylized Y-shape."

"So... you _don't_ want me to ask costumer service for this thing then?"

"Absolutely not! Those idiots wouldn't have even heard of half the things on this list!"

"Alright then..."

If Cap had known that trying to find the things the team nerds needed to adjust the Time Window was going to be such a hassle, he likely wouldn't have volunteered to get them to begin with. Well... at least he had been able to drag Minnie into coming with him- surely she'd have a better idea of what they were looking for than what he did. _Anyone_ would have had a better idea of what they were looking for than he did...

"I'm ready Oppa." Mina announced as she came into the room. Cap let out a sigh of relief- now Monty could explain everything to her and everything would be right in the world again.

"Here's the list of the things I need you to get." Montgomery told Mina, entrusting her with the list. "Do you understand what you need to get?"

Mina looked over the list, mumbled the names of the stuff they needed, then looked back up at Montgomery with a nod.

"Sounds easy enough." she agreed.

"Good." Montgomery told her in a short, curt tone. "I'd figure one of you would know what you're looking for."

Cap rolled his shoulder to show Montgomery that is comment flew completely over him- Cap knew his limits, he didn't need a self proclaimed smarty-pants to affirm the theory.

Without further instruction, Cap and Mina took their leave to retrieve the items, leaving behind the ninja without a care in the world. Zane and Lloyd, who had seen them leave together gave each other a rather confused look. Alice noticed their looks and laughed. Turning to the sound of Alice's light laughter, Nya and Cyrus looked at the artificial girl before looking at Zane and Lloyd. The duo from the past looked at the small group from the future, wondering what had made Alice laugh at them like she was.

If there ever was a more conflicting way to start a conversation...

"I thought Mina was an only child?" Lloyd finally asked.

"She is." Nya, Cyrus, and Alice (though bursts of giggles) said at the same time.

"But... she just..." Lloyd started, but was more confused than he realized.

"The term 'oppa' translates to 'big brother', are you saying this is not true in Mina's case?" Zane then inquired. Alice only started to laugh harder- even Montgomery stared at her.

"You need a check in your euphoria sensors." the unamused young man told the artificial girl. "Come, I'll check you now since nothing of vast importance is going on at the moment."

With a nod, Alice and Montgomery left the room leaving behind the others.

"Mina and Cap are not siblings, nor related in any way." Nya told Zane and Lloyd. "Of all of Mina's friends (excluding the Falcon), the most simple answer would be is that she's known him longer."

"But why would she..." Lloyd once again started to say, but stopped again.

"Cap isn't related to anyone here." Cyrus said. "I created Alice, Kass is a distant cousin of Cole's, Montgomery is Nya's oldest son, and Mina herself is your daughter, Lloyd. The relationship Cap and Mina share would not reveal the idea to a bystander on the street. Platonic as they have made it, it's hard to think of one and not the other most of the time."

Lloyd nodded. So... they were just friends? Good. Even though he wasn't technically around in this time line to be much of an influence in Mina's life, at least he didn't need to worry about her falling for a guy that was more than three years older than her.

. . .

"I can go another round!" Kass huffed to Cole, who opposite looked like he hadn't broken a sweat.

"No. No you can't." Cole told his supposed cousin calmly and without hesitance.

"Yes I can!" Kass demanded, as he started to lunge toward Cole, much to Jay and Kai's excitement.

"There he goes!" Kai cheered.

"Watch him go for the knock out!" Jay quipped back.

Ignoring them, Kass made a swing at Cole. The Ninja of Earth just stared and dodged Kass's blow without effort or care. Cole then took Kass from behind and back flipped him into the training mat with a sickening thud. From the sidelines, Kai and Jay let out a groan of shared pain and disappointment, almost sounding like a pair of sports newscasters during a brutal football game.

"You. Are. Done. Kid." Cole told Kass before starting to walk away as the teen groaned in a pain that ached all over. Cole went to get a drink of water as Kass started to get up.

"Tr... train me...!" Kass said, the pain in his body too amazing and hurtful to do much else than to stand up. Cole turned around to look at the worse for wear teen.

"No." Cole told him.

"W-why?!" Kass demanded as he winched a little from pain.

"I'm not a Sensei." Cole told Kass prudently. Kass looked back at him with a sad, hope-broken face. Seeing it made Cole give a face of almost regretting his words.

"But..." Cole hesitantly started to say, "Maybe some day when you stop acting like an over glorified fanboy."

"I'm not acting like Dareth!" Kass exclaimed with wide eyes.

"You are." Jay spoke up.

"Just a little." Kai agreed. Kass glared at them both before smacking the back of his head back on the floor. Cole walked over to Kass and looked at him from above, grudgingly Kass looked back up at his mentor.

"Patience." Cole told him. "Learn patience and how to take 'no' as an answer, then I'll train you. Maybe."

Kass looked up at his idol and slowly started to give a tiny smile of hope.


	10. Filler: Ninjashock Infinite

**The following is a filler chapter for reaching 10 chapters outstanding. The mini plot following is completely able to be skipped over if the reader so desires. Thank you for reading so far, and here's to 10 more!**

. . .

" _Lloyd... are you afraid of God...?"_

" _No. But I'm afraid of you."_

 _. . ._

The rain woke Lloyd up from his short nap on the boat. Well, it might have actually been the two Droids that sat in front of him- one was rowing, the other sat facing away from him but toward the rower.

"Are you going to just sit there Pixal?" the one rowing asked the other.

"As compared to what Zane? Standing?" the other asked, sounding rather bemused.

"Not standing! Rowing."

"Rowing?" the one known as Pixal asked as she handed something Lloyd's way. "Didn't plan on it."

"What's this?" Lloyd asked, still sounding a bit drowsy from the nap he had.

"So you expect me to handle the burden?" the one now known as Zane asked, sounding as if he didn't hear Lloyd. Pixal didn't seem to answer him either.

"No, but I do expect you to do all the rowing." Pixal told Zane.

"And why is that?" Zane asked, sounding a bit annoyed but curious.

"Coming here was your idea." Pixal said as if the answer was simple.

" _My_ idea?!"

"I made it very clear I don't believe in the exercise."

"The rowing?"

"No, I'd imagine that's wonderful exercise."

"Then what?" Zane inquired.

"The entire thought experiment." Pixal told him prudently.

"Excuse me," Lloyd spoke up, "How much longer?"

"One goes into an experiment knowing one could fail." Zane continued.

"One does not go into an experiment knowing one _has_ failed." Pixal said back.

With a sigh, Lloyd looked down at the box that Pixal had given him earlier. The box was made of wood, and the top had a gold nameplate that bore the words 'Lloyd Green: 5th Ninja, Spinjitzu Master.' Lloyd opened the box to find a postcard and a separate code on the lid's interior. In the box's main interior lie a gun, which Lloyd cocked and placed into his belt loop before picking up a black and white picture of a girl he felt he vaguely knew. Out of curiosity, Lloyd turned the picture over and the back was a message scrawled on hastily read 'Bring to Ninjago unharmed'.

"Perhaps you should ask him?" Pixal then said as Lloyd's ears tuned back into their conversation. "I'd imagine he has greater interest in getting there than I do."

"I suppose he does." Zane agreed dimly. "There's no point in asking."

"Why not?" Pixal bemusedly asked.

"It's because he doesn't row."

"He doesn't row?!"

"No, he _doesn't_ row."

"Ah, I see what you mean." Pixal agreed as they came up to a small port. Once the boat was close enough to the ladder, Lloyd stood up and started to climb up the wet thing onto the deck. Lloyd looked around and saw that no one else was there. When he turned back, he found that Zane and Pixal were already starting to row away.

"Hey!" Lloyd shouted back at them. "Is someone meeting me here?"

"I'd certainly hope so." Zane said.

"It does seem like a dreadful place to get stranded." Pixal agreed.

"Maybe there'll be someone inside..." Lloyd mumbled to himself as he started to walk up to the lighthouse. He didn't have to walk for long before coming to the lighthouse door.

"Hello," Lloyd said as he knocked on the door, "It's Lloyd Green, I guess you're expecting me?"

The door slowly opened under the weight of Lloyd's heavy knocks. Carefully, Lloyd entered and the first thing he saw was a small basin of water with a hand crocheted sign that read 'Of they sins, Shall I wash of thee'. Lloyd walked up to the bin and stared at his own reflection in the basin. Looking from the water to the sign, Lloyd stepped away with a grimace.

"Good luck with that pal." he muttered before walking away.

. . .

 _Some shenanigans later..._

. . .

Lloyd woke up in the sand. Not feeling at all pleased in any way, he looked around for the girl.

"Where is she?" he muttered to himself as he got up. Aimlessly, Lloyd looked around, his only clue to go on was to follow the sound of some kind of music that played on the other end of this beach-like place. Eventually, he reached the point to where the sound originated from, and there he found her.

She was dancing.

"Hey Miss..." Lloyd said as he got closer to her, unsure of how to approach her. The girl did not seem to answer him as she kept on dancing.

"Miss?" Lloyd said again, "Could you just-"

Having a feeling she wasn't going to listen him, Lloyd approached her directly.

"Hey...!" Lloyd said louder as he got closer to her, "Miss... Miss Minerva...!"

That got her attention, but it did not break her new free spirit.

"Hello!" Minerva said to him happily. "This is wonderful! Come dance with me Mr. Green!"

"I don't dance." Lloyd told her grimly.

. . .

 _Five Minutes Later (and no, Lloyd didn't dance...)_

. . .

"Mr Green, over here!" Minerva said happily as she walked up to two almost familiar persons.

"Dragon?" the male asked Minerva.

"Or the cage?" the female asked.

"Or perhaps the dragon?" the male said to the female in a rather irritated tone.

"Nothing beats the cage." the female told her other quite firmly.

"These two again..." Lloyd mumbled to himself. "How do... never mind."

"Look at these, they're amazing!" Minerva said as she turned to Lloyd. "Which one do you like more? The dragon is beautiful... and the cage in somber, but there's really something special about it."

Lloyd looked at her. Was he _really_ going to make this decision? With a sigh, Lloyd looked at Minerva and gave his answer.

Which one would _you_ choose?


	11. That's -Your- Kid

"What do you mean they don't make the Super Funicom anymore?!" Jay demanded. "All the best games were on that system!"

"The graphics were super outdated though." Kass told him. "It was like watching a bad loop from a cartoon show!"

"And, between the eventual evolution of hardware mixed with next gen software, there soon came a problem of the 'best games' becoming the worst ones because of glitches and ridiculous load times." Montgomery added. "The idea of a new system became mandatory for the company- they had very little choice."

"But this controller looks nothing like the one used for the Super Funicom!" Cole said, holding up the controller to demonstrate his point.

"Things had to change," Montgomery said as he shook his head, "The old controller design was deemed clunky and too sticky for the next gen consoles, so they redesigned it."

"Maybe, instead of the controller being too clunky and sticky, maybe you kids couldn't handle how awesome the games were!" Jay huffed.

"I _did_ mention hardware and software mismatch with glitching, right?" Montgomery asked, turning to Kass. Kass nodded.

"It's hard to believe that my mother chose one of _them_ as my father." Montgomery said as he shook his head. "I almost feel embarrassed."

"And what does that mean?" Cole demanded. Montgomery looked at him with a fairly blank look.

"Exactly what you think it means, apparently." came the near toneless answer. Cole flashed a hard look at Jay.

"That's _your_ kid." Cole spat. "There's no way a child of mine would talk to _me_ like that!"

"My mother insured that I harass the both of you equally." Montgomery informed him in a matter-of-fact tone. "You seem to be a lot easier to annoy, I thought Jay would be the better subject."

"Wait a minute!" Jay cried in defense, although he had been making fun of Cole a few seconds before. "You're Cole's kid! No kid of mine would purposely make fun of me or think it's an easy thing to do!"

"It's definitely working, now isn't it?" Montgomery asked, a rather snide smirk forming on the corner of his lips.

The uproar from this statement sent the room into a mini battle for the ages. But moving away from it, Lloyd found himself walking toward Mina's room. He wasn't sure what he was trying to prove by walking over that way- maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was stupidity, maybe he was just bored. Either way, he was almost completely unaware that Kai was following him, and was slowly catching wind to what he was thinking. Lloyd lightly touched the door that led into her bedroom, his stomach suddenly twisting into knots at the thought that he was actually going to do it...

"What do you think you're doing?" Kai then spoke up. Surprised, Lloyd jumped a good foot in the air before turning to look at Kai.

"Geez, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Lloyd panted.

"Well then, you obviously knew that what you were going to do is wrong." Kai rebutted. Lloyd opened his mouth to defend himself, but found that he did not have the words to make a convincing argument. Kai looked on, raising a questioning eyebrow. This was something they would have expected Jay or Cole to do to finally decide who was Montgomery's father- but it wasn't something Lloyd would have been expected to do in any situation.

"I need to know what happened." Lloyd finally blurted. Kai's unamused look did not waver.

"We already know what happened." Kai reminded Lloyd. "You went missing and a few years later we did too. Mina's your daughter and blah, blah, blah. What else do you need to know?"

Lloyd averted his gaze away from Kai, now feeling embarrassed about how his mind was drawing conclusions about the situation at hand.

"According to what we've been told, I would have gone missing when Mina was still a little kid- practically a baby. I... I want to know who..."

"You want to know who you saddled the kid with until Cyrus had the responsibility?"

Lloyd sheepishly ran a hand through his hair with a nod. It sounded rather selfish and petty that he would go into a young girl's room for information when it was only a simple question to the right party.

"Why can't you just ask her yourself?" Kai asked, requesting the obvious.

"She... I don't think she will give me a straight answer."

"So you're going to invade her privacy by finding out yourself?"

Lloyd said nothing and refused to look Kai in the eye.

"If you're going to start digging," Kai then started to say, regretting already what he was suggesting, "You better get a move on now before they come back. I'll... I'll go in with you to make sure you're in and out before she realizes it."

Lloyd looked up at Kai hopefully, and the ninja of Fire stood his ground although he looked as if he might regret it later.

. . .

Mina's room wasn't very impressive upon first inspection. The walls were a dark gray and the floors were black, a wire frame bed sat headfirst against the wall with a bedside table next to it, a small dresser was hidden in a corner, and a desk that was placed by the only window in the room.

"Geez, this room is more depressing than the one Sensei Wu has on the Bounty." Kai noted. "I'd be bipolar too if this was the room I had to stay in most of the time."

"I wonder how she lived before she came here..." Lloyd said, mostly to himself, before noticing a shelf above the desk that was decorated from edge to edge with photographs of various sizes. Deciding to get a better look at them, Lloyd walked up closer to the shelf. He found himself smiling at a few of them because they reminded him of the relationships he had with the other ninja as he looked at the pictures Mina had of her friends. Lloyd's gaze then averted to the top of the desk, there he saw a letter sealed with what appeared to be Kai's signature symbol. Struck with curiosity and not thinking twice, Lloyd opened the letter and read its contents in entirety. What he read almost made him jump back in surprise.


	12. Calling Him Out

_Dear Mina,_

 _I..._

 _Admittedly, I should have told you this earlier. I kept looking for a way to tell you but I couldn't... I couldn't just spit it out because I didn't want you to be upset. After reading this though, I have a feeling you're going to be upset with me no matter what._

 _Mina... I... I have to go... for a little bit. It's kinda like the missions I used to tell you about that Zane, Cole, Jay, and I used to go on except I'm not sure when we'll come back. I... I'm not even sure we'll come back at all. By the time you wake up, we should already be at our destination- for you, it means that Cyrus Borg is going to take care of you until we can come back. You remember Cyrus, right? He created Alice for you. Or... because of you. I still have no idea at this point._

 _Cap will come to get you around ten to take you to Cyrus. Everyone knows that we're leaving... you were the last to know... Mina... I... I really am sorry I had to tell you this way. I know you're going to be ridiculously mad at me for this, Nya already is... heh, everyone's mad at me right now for not telling you sooner. But I didn't want to... I didn't want..._

 _I love you, I really do. I wouldn't say it in front of Lloyd when he handed me to you when you were only a year old; but I loved you the moment I saw you. But I knew you weren't mine to love and I'm sure that's confused you for every day in your life until now. These last few weeks, where I tried to tell you what was going on but couldn't find the strength, I realized that I was wrong. You are my child, but not in a classical sense. You were mine but you're not- either way, I love you. Every day I'm gone I'm going to think of you and be reminded that I could have done better- that I could have done so, so much more than what I did. I'm sorry Mina, but this is for your own good._

 _I... I'll send you message if I'm able to. Maybe you'll get it but it will seem unlikely based on where we are going. I'm sorry and I hope you can forgive me when you believe I am worthy of being held in high honor again after this mess..._

 _-Kai_

. . .

Lloyd stared at the letter as Kai continued to look around Mina's room. Lloyd opened his mouth to say something to signal Kai over, but all that came out of his mouth was an odd and discomforting squeaking sound. Kai finally took a look over Lloyd's way and noticed that the Green Ninja was frozen in place.

"What did you find?" Kai asked as he looked over Lloyd's shoulder. Kai then read the letter Lloyd was holding and quickly started to show the same expression.

"No way...! How...?!" Kai stuttered in surprise.

"Everyone knew about them leaving except for her..." Lloyd mumbled. He then turned to Kai with a glare that was nearly venomous. "You're a horrible parent! Why on earth would I trust you with her?!"

Kai flashed Lloyd a look of confusion and anger.

" _My_ fault?! _I'm_ not the one that decided to leave her to begin with! Unlike my situation, yours was without warning to anyone!"

"Take that back!" Lloyd demanded.

"Technically she isn't even your daughter yet!" Kai hollered back. "Why do you care?"

"Because it means I'll be no better than my own parents!" Lloyd shouted, his hand forming a fist that crumbled the letter without a second thought. Kai took a step back and looked at his friend as he seethed over with rage.

"I left her!" Lloyd then screamed as tears started to form in the corner of his eyes. "And I left her with... with an _idiot_ who couldn't decide whether he loved her or not! She lived every day wishing that she knew someone that actually loved her- someone that would actually _show_ love for her! Yes, that idiot was there when she needed him, but it _wasn't enough_ for her! You don't know what it's like Kai, to have this hole in your heart that you want someone to fill but that can't do that because they aren't there with you. You don't know what it's like to want someone that you don't even know that well. You... you don't even know what it's like to... to...!"

Kai looked down at Lloyd, waiting for him to finish. But Lloyd had ranted essentially all that he wanted, although a desire to shout more was prominent, there wasn't much more he could rant about. The feeling made the Green Ninja confused, angry, and surprisingly tired.

"Dude..." Kai slowly started to say. "We need to talk."

. . .

Cap looked at the S-hook binds in decision. He started to reach for one but stopped Mina let out a little grunt that indicated he was going to pick the wrong one. Giving the girl a side look, Cap moved his hand over a little to the right- but Mina let out another indicative groan that hinted him that he was going to be wrong again. Cap tried this method again but tried moving his hand to the left- Mina all but slapped herself on the forehead. Cap all but laughed at her in return.

"You know _you_ could be doing this instead of making _me_ do it." Cap told her, attempting to sound upset but only came off as cheeky.

"As much as it kills me to watch you make a complete idiot of yourself- you must learn someway or another." Mina said to him as she shook her head in despair. Cap laughed with good nature.

"Hey Minnie, I just got an idea." Cap then said. Mina looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"You're never going to call me that again?" she guessed.

"No." Cap retorted with a smirk. "How 'bout after we get the parts, I'll take you somewhere nice. A certain park maybe; what'cha think?"

Mina gave Cap a wary side glance- and yet, despite such a disapproving look, she agreed.


	13. Third Eye

Keeping up with Cap was harder than it looked; each of them carried a bag from the supply store, but as Cap took great strides, Mina found herself having to skip a step just to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" Mina asked, even struggling to hold her bag up while Cap power walked like a business woman on Wall Street.

"You don't recognize the path yet?" Cap replied from over his shoulder, subtly making her more upset that she couldn't keep up with him.

"If I did do you think I would be asking?" she fired back. Cap chuckled a bit.

"I know a girl that acts like the flame," he started to sing playfully, "She always goes around like the world's caught on fire. Don't know if she's ever gonna be with me, but she's got the spirit of infamy!"

"I hate that song..." Mina grumbled.

"But it was written just for you Minnie!"

"That's not my name, and say what you want about Jay, Cole, and Kai together in one place- they sure know how to bully an orphan."

"They were _not_ bullying you." Cap laughed. "Get over yourself you melodramatic nutcase. If you would just realize that you're so easy to tease, most of us would stop at any time. Why do you think I call you Minnie?"

The girl did not answer as she kept her head down with a rather grumpy face plastered on. Cap let out a light laughter as he looked up at a large monument sign that designated their location.

"Recognize the path now Min?" Cap asked. Mina looked up and read the black plaque with its words etched with gold lettering; Ninja Memorial Park, Home of the Titanium Ninja Tribute. Not even a second after she set her eyes on said tribute that was placed in the middle of the park, Mina's eyes felt as if someone had stabbed pins into them as she keeled over in pain.

"Minnie?" Cap said as he rushed to her side. "Are you alright?"

 _The Golden Power laced around Ninjago's city center like a spider web. In the center was the spider itself; the Golden Master. But ice was slowly starting to take over the Golden web like a laced poison attacking one's blood stream. In a moment of what seemed like bliss, the ignorant Ninja of Ice gave up his entire existence just to save his friends before he and the Golden Master collided systems to cause a combustion unlike any other. From the sidelines, the other ninja could only stare in awe and fear. They thought he was gone, they thought the war was over; but they were wrong. They were dead wrong._

"Min talk to me!" Cap demanded as he shook Mina's shoulders. The girl was unresponsive, so Cap lugged her over to a park bench and waited for her to come-to.

"G-get me... get me out of here..." Mina slowly started to murmur. "I... all this bad... no good memories..."

Cap raised an eyebrow as he gently moved a piece of Mina's hair out of her face.

"Minnie," he then said in a concerned tone that hid nothing, "I don't know what has a hold of you right now, but you've never acted this way. Stress aside, something else is going on inside that soul of yours- I've known you far too long to just let anything slip by. Whatever's eating you Min, _fight it_. You're stronger than that, I know you are. Tell that demon inside of you to grow a pair and get out of your way; letting him take over you isn't part of your spirit. Please Min... I honestly have no idea if you can hear me now or not, but this is seriously important. Is any of it getting through?"

 _If only 'You haven't seen the last of me' wasn't just a mere threat..._

"H-hey Oppa...?" Mina then started to stutter as he slowly turned her head to look up at him.

"Yes?" Cap asked as he moved a portion of her hair away so he could easily look back at her.

"When we get back... we need to talk."

"Already done." Cap told her with a smile. But Mina shook her head.

"I want Zane to join us." she told him. Cap gave Mina a look that wanted to be confused, but not feel very confused at all- only understanding.

Above them, the Falcon gave a cry that diverted their attention upwards.

"We're heading back!" Cap shouted up at the robotic bird. "Give us a few more minutes, we haven't been gone that long!"

"No one's spying on us." Mina told him as the Falcon started to make indication that it was going to land. "He's coming to say hello."

"Minnie, you know as well as I do that that bird doesn't just come around to say hello to you."

"He does." the girl claimed. "You don't know him the way I do."

"I highly doubt-" Cap started to say, but trailed off as he watched Mina take a panel off that was located on the back of the robotic bird's neck and pulled a thin cord out of a circuit before putting the panel back.

"There we go." the girl said in a calm, cold tone. "He's my Crow now, not their Falcon."

Cap could only stare as he started to feel increasingly aware that something about her wasn't right. He shook it off soon enough though, and he started to get up.

"If we're going Min, let's get a move on." he declared. "Are you ready too?"

Mina stroked the back of the Falcon's head slowly before she started to nod.

"Sure. Let's go."

And without further ado, the duo left the park and headed back to the Borg Industries tower.


	14. Never Easy

"Did you get everything?" Montgomery asked rather impatiently as Cap and Mina came back to the room where the time window was being repaired.

"Should." Mina replied as she handed over her bag to Montgomery. "We got a capacitor, a big red button, various sized Allen wrenches, three quarters by ten inch PVC piping, heavy duty electrical tape built specifically for untested and dangerous materials, a timey-whimey ball, four inch S-hooks, three pieces of malleable copper sheet metal, and a dim-lit florescent light bulb."

"And...?"

"And? Oh! And I managed to find some of your favorite candy- those dried biscuit cookie sticks dipped in chocolate."

"But you found the ones dipped in strawberry flavoring, right?"

"Of course. I know you're allergic to chocolate."

"He's _WHAT_?!" Jay and Cole hollered at the same time.

"It's actually the chemical process of which the cocoa bean is mixed with lactose." Nya told them both charmingly. "The compound the two create upsets Montgomery's stomach acid. Saying he's allergic to chocolate is actually a bit of an exaggeration- he can still eat it, but it does cause some problems with his digestive tract."

Ignoring the small interruption, Montgomery looked back at Mina.

"Did you find everything rather quickly although you had... a lack of help?" Montgomery then asked, giving Cap a rather nasty side glare.

"Your faith in me is so fantastically racist that I wake up with a smile every morning." Cap retorted with a snide smirk. "How _do_ you manage to be so charming all the time?"

Montgomery did not answer, and instead rolled his eyes before giving his attention back to Mina.

"Did you find everything well enough?" Montgomery asked again. Mina nodded.

"Yeah. I think I missed something though." she admitted. "Something about putty. Like that kind used for art projects and stuff...?"

"Oh yes, that stuff. We don't need it right now; it was going to be a substitute for the electrical tape. Other than that, you did rather well. Thank you Minerva."

Mina gave Montgomery a small half smile that Lloyd happen to catch. For a moment, there was something different about her; like a mask, temporarily falling away for a brief glimpse of the true face underneath. He wasn't the only one that noticed either, even Montgomery seemed a bit surprised at the genuine emotion. But as soon as the sliver of true emotion saw through, it was gone.

"Thanks to Minerva, and Hyun," Montgomery then announced to the original generation and their future kin, "The preparations to repair the time window are completed, Mother, Mr Cyrus, and I will start the initial repairs needed. Zane, if you could, I would like for you to join us in the repairs as well."

"I would be-" Zane started to say, but Mina spoke up.

"I... want to talk to Zane first." she said. "Cap and I... we were talking a bit and we wanted Zane to hear what we had to say."

Zane raised an eyebrow and walked over to her. He inspected her then gave a trusting smile before turning to Montgomery.

"I will talk with Minerva and Cap, then I will assist you in repairing the time window." Zane informed Montgomery with certainty. The young genius looked at the Nindroid and gave a nod to show he understood. Zane looked back at Mina with a smile and together they left with Cap.

"What do we do while we wait?" Kai inquired.

"Whatever, I guess." Montgomery replied with a shrug. "It doesn't matter to me what you do as long as you don't leave this building."

"Video games!" Cole and Jay declared together.

"What about training?" Kass asked them, his eyes wide as if the idea mindless leisure could never happen.

"All training and no play makes for a dull ninja." Cole told his cousin playfully. "Come on, I'll let you play second controller if Jay doesn't steal it!"

"Oh! May I also join in on the digital destruction of artificial lifeforms in a fictional universe?" Alice pipped up in an ecstatic tone.

"Don't see why not." Cole agreed with a shrug. Alice let out a little squeal of enthusism as she, Cole, Jay, and a confused Kass went to the ninja's temporary quarters.

With them gone, Kai looked over at Lloyd. Kai made a gesture to allow Lloyd to go first while giving the Green Ninja a look that illustrated that where ever he was going, Kai planned on following. Lloyd gave a nod in return before the two left toward the library.

"Now then," Montgomery then said to Cyrus and Nya. "Let's get working."

. . .

"What are we going to look up first?" Kai asked Lloyd as he struggled to get the high tech computer on in the library.

"I don't know." Lloyd admitted as he ran a thumb across the spines of the books. "Maybe... maybe some court records or something. If you adopted her, I'm sure record of that exists somewhere- the governing bodies of Ninjago aren't that lazy... or stupid."

"If you wanted to do that, you might as well look up her birth certificate too." Kai told him. "Then you'll know who-"

"I don't want to know that." Lloyd informed Kai. "I can wait. But I want to know how she lived before all this. I want to know if she was still cared for although..."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Kai agreed with a handwave as the computer finally started to boot. "In any case, I know what I'm going to look up."

"What's that?" Lloyd asked from over his shoulder as he pulled out a book that apparently had Alice's blueprints inside.

"That Trial of the Golden whatever, how come we never heard of it before now?"

"Plot." Lloyd told his friend with an amused scoff.

"Other than that." Kai replied tonelessly. "There's got to be more to it than forcefully giving the golden power to whoever finds an unfindable temple and just seeing if they can handle it or not. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there has to be something more to that- don't you think? It's never the simple for us, ever!"

"Yeah..." Lloyd agreed dimly as he looked back through the bookshelf. "It's never that simple... is it? I wonder..."


	15. Iron Sharpens Iron

Zane and Cap waited patiently as Mina paced back in forth in decision. The only place they had that would be semi-private would have Mina's own room. Cap had taken occupancy of Mina's desk chair while Zane had found a spot on her bed where he was able to sit but not mess up the orientation of the bedding.

"Any time you're ready Min." Cap said as he reclined a bit in his seat, obviously trying to get comfortable.

 _Don't tell them a thing,_ a sneaky voice whispered in the back of her mind, _You honestly don't believe that they could get rid of_ me _just by revealing our secret, do you?_

"We're here to help you Minerva." Zane spoke up, although it was in a soft tone. "Remember the crooked road, it can always change direction."

Mina closed her eyes in thought as she desperately tried to tune out the voice of an entity that should have disappeared a long time ago. She was surrounded by people that loved her -as if there had been any doubt- would they treat her any different when she told them a secret that even she didn't want to know?

"You know about the Trial of the Golden Master, right?" Mina then started to say.

"From what we were told and were able to easily gather." Zane affirmed.

"It has something to do with you finding this old temple and having the Golden Power put in you, didn't it?" Cap then added. "Then there's this thing about how you have to overcome some kind of mind thing so that when you touch Lloyd one of you doesn't end up dying because one of you guys absorbed the Golden Power from the other. Wasn't that right?"

Mina nodded, but it was a small one, and it surely was not very encouraging at all.

"In the temple, after I found a way to ring that bell and the Golden Power was infused in my blood, I discovered something about my... my..."

"Your... _what_ Min?" Cap warily asked, suddenly disliking the way the conversation was going.

"Zane, do you remember the Overlord?" Mina then asked, looking more and more perplexed.

"Of course." Zane agreed solemnly. "The first time we defeated the Overlord he had possessed Sensei Garmadon, the second time we faced the Overlord he had come known as the Golden Master and the confrontation cost me my original body. Was he not quite as 'dead' as what we assumed he was after his last appearance?"

"He... hid for awhile." Mina explained. "He was never far from my da- Lloyd, and he kept an eye on everything before he could make his next appearance (those ghosts really annoyed him because they did the one thing he couldn't, but I digress). He waited and waited, and he waited long enough that he became a part of me."

"How did he do that?" Zane inquired. "The Overlord didn't have a bodily form after his second destruction. Are you implying that he was reincarnated without us knowing?"

"He had a soul." Mina told him, almost defensively. "So do you and I."

"Point being?"

"His soul was fused into with mine. I didn't know about it before because the Overlord's soul was 'sleeping', in a sense. But when the Golden Power was given to me, it reawakened his soul. At first it wasn't much of a problem -just another voice in my head- but now with Lloyd and other ninja so close to touch… I'm… I'm scared of him. I'm scared that he's going to take over my body like he did with Garmadon years ago. I'm scared that Lloyd and I will brush against each other on accident and one of us will fall over dead. I'm afraid that… that I'm going to lose control of the Golden Power and the Overlord is going to use it to create the next Armageddon!"

Zane and Cap gave Mina the same blank look. She looked back at them, growing increasingly frustrated at their silence.

"I want Kai back!" the girl then demanded with frustration as tears started to form in her eyes. "I want a hug…"

. . .

"Can you believe that Misako didn't know anything about the Trail of the Golden Master before she passed away?" Kai asked irritably to no one in particular. "Isn't she the one that always had some kind of prophecy or something that creepily followed whatever we were doing for most seasons?!"

"Apparently you reopen the Four Weapons blacksmith shop after Mina's born. I think there are some records that say you expanded it too. That's nice…" Lloyd mumbled, obviously not paying attention to Kai's thoughts no more than Kai was to his. Kai turned to Lloyd and opened his mouth to say something, but soon took it back. As much as he wanted to fathom why Lloyd was so desperate to find out about Mina's background and her day to day activities, it also almost insulted him. Did Lloyd not trust Kai after reading that letter? Was Lloyd actually really mad at Kai and just wouldn't tell him about it? Or maybe Kai was just overreacting and there was something completely and totally different on the Green Ninja's mind that he didn't want to tell his friend about right now- and to be frank, he could understand that too.

Somewhere, deep down in Kai's gut, he knew that something was wrong but he couldn't decide whether it was with Lloyd or something else altogether. Little did he know that this was because someone was trying to send a message from far, far away on an island where five distinct figures were trapped against their will. Little did he know that his future self was trying to contact him from suspended animation.

. . .

"Turn it on now." Montgomery instructed Zane. The Nindroid nodded and flipped a switch on one end, and Montgomery flipped another switch on the other end. The Time Window started to hum to life, but soon fizzed out within the next nanosecond. Montgomery gave the Time Window console a blank stare before carefully waking a bit closer to it and giving a hard side kick with the middle of his foot.

"There's no reason for that sweetie." Nya told him as she got up behind Montgomery and placed her hands on his shoulders. "This is only your second attempt. Didn't the original estimates say that it was going to take more than a week? It's barely been four days."

"I thought we agreed that we should send them back as soon as possible." Montgomery coldly told his mother as he shook her off of him.

"Honey, I know you want it to be perfect the first time," Nya told her son calmly, "But something like this takes time and practice. Not everything you work on is going to be perfect the first time."

Montgomery shot Nya a hard look of annoyance and dislike. "You sound like you talk from experience Mother," he told her in a chillingly calm tone. "Is there something you're hiding from me?"

Nya did not say a thing and only stared at her child.

"With that being the case," Montgomery then said, "It's getting late and I want to start working on the Time Window again early tomorrow morning. Good night."

Giving Nya another sour look, Montgomery pushed past her as he headed toward the door. After he left the room, Nya found a spot to sit and began to rub her temples.

"I hate genetics so much…" she mumbled to no one in particular. Zane raised an eyebrow and chose to sit down beside her. Nya noticed that Zane had sat beside her and she sat back up again.

"Never have children Zane." She said as she turned to face him. For the first time, Zane realized how weary and broken her eyes seemed to be. "And if you ever do choose to have kids, make sure they don't act like you."

"Is it possible that stubbornness is a genetic trait?" Zane inquired.

"Apparently." Nya agreed with a shake of her head. "I can't admit defeat, Mont gets testy when something doesn't work the first time, Kai is just a big dumb jerkface that apparently has no regard for anyone that loves him…"

Zane gave a small bemused smile, but Nya did not find it amusing. Instead, she buried herself back in her hands.

"If they had let me go with them…" Nya then mumbled. "I could have helped them. I could have saved them. I could have made sure that signal lasted longer when they did disappear! I could have… I could have been trapped with them just so I would know where they are!"

Zane looked at Nya as the woman started to let little tears drip down the side of her face. Carefully, and rather awkwardly, Zane wrapped his arms around her for a hug. Nya realized what he was doing and gratefully hugged him back.


	16. What Do You Fear?

It was like an odd mix of a fairy tale and a scientific theory. Four coffin-like chambers formed a circle around a larger coffin-chamber in the center. They were sleeping, they were both alive and dead; their minds were no longer inside their bodies. It was the perfect time to divulge into a world unlike any other.

So, tell me ninja- what do you fear the most?

Poor decisions?

 _"Kai… this is Minerva."_

 _Lloyd, what are you…?"_

 _"I want you to take care of her for… while. I don't know when I'll be back."_

 _"What do you mean by…? Lloyd?! Where are you going?!"_

Abandonment?

 _"That show was a hoot, wasn't it? I liked that part when that on guy set the whole place of fire. What about you Mina?"_

 _"It wasn't bad…"_

 _"You hated it. Didn't you?"_

 _"No, it wasn't that bad. I just… I dunno."_

 _"Hey Mina, I have… there's something I want to tell you."_

 _"What?"_

 _"I… Never mind. It's not that important right now, I can tell you later."_

 _"O-okay."_

Unintended harm?

 _"Kass?! Kass are you alright?! Kass! Talk to me you idiot!"_

 _"D-did I make it?"_

 _"You stupid… no! No you didn't! You almost_ killed _yourself! Do you have any idea how freaking_ scared _I was because I thought you had… had… What were you thinking!?"_

 _"I… I just wanted to be like you Cole…"_

 _"Sometimes kid… what I do, isn't what you should do. Let's call it quits for now._

 _"For how long? I wanna start training again tomorrow!"_

 _"Never Kass. Never again."_

A poor relationship?

 _"If we adjust the swirler-hurl to a forty-five degree angle and adjust the mirror so the sunlight powers approximately a quarter of its previous charge to the haystack, then perhaps we should be able to-"_

 _"H-hey Mont! You're doing a pretty great job. Do you… do you mind if I help just a bit there?"_

 _"I don't see why not. Go ahead, show me how you think it should be done."_

 _"Awesome! But, uh… are you going to stare at me like that the entire time?"_

 _"Like what? I am merely observing your evaluation of the procedure, from there I plan on making my own opinions on how well you did so that I can adjust. Should you choose a solution that I do not agree with- is that going to be a problem?"_

 _"N-no! No, no, no, not a problem at all! Just didn't think that Nya raised you to be more robotic than Zane…"_

 _"What was that?"_

 _"Nothing! I said nothing!"_

A promise that can not change the inevitable?

 _"If you would like, I shall 'maintain the crooked road' so that we may lead back here. I will memorize every curve that was a lesson in direction so that we can grow to this outcome. I sense that you are quite influential in this time line, and so it is with your permission that I learn what I can so it may be kept in history. Or not, if you prefer."_

So, tell me ninja, what is it that you fear? Because I can assure you, I can make it happen.

. . .

It was dead at night when Kai woke with a start, sitting upright in his bed as if someone had him connected to an electric chair. Looking around the room he shared with the other ninja, Kai collected his bearings with where he was and flopped back with a groan. Sleep did not claim him right away, so he just laid on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"Stupid dreams, keeping me up at night…" Kai mumbled as he put his pillow on top of his face. "Can't a ninja ever get sleep, even when they're off duty?!"

 _Maybe those stupid dreams are trying to save your life you idiot_ , a random, angered thought declared on the back of his mind. As quickly as it came, it was forgotten, leaving Kai to shake his head and attempt to go back to sleep.

Safe to say, it didn't work as well as he wanted it to.

Five minutes dully went by before Kai heard someone try to open the door. Confident that his friends never left their beds, Kai braced himself to be attacked by whoever had come in. This new person crept in silently and they made their way over to his bed in particular.

"Alright Crow, you're going to try this again…" the voice whispered softly. "You see that Kai? He's not _my_ Kai. _My_ Kai doesn't use concealer to hide those scars around his one eye. _My_ Kai would pick up on my distress and try to avoid the subject while taking me to every fun place imaginable. Do you understand me Crow? You need to take the DNA that rests before you and… and age it somehow thirty years and locate _that_. Maybe Monty could figure something out…"

The robotic bird gave a soft robotic whirring sound that replaced a more typical bird cry. Kai peeked an eye open by a fraction of a centimeter to see Mina start to walk away as she snuggled with the robotic bird.

"Monty was the one that helped me program you to find them to begin with… Just hope we can get him away from the Time Window long enough to do that though."

 _She's trying to find us?! Help her! Get up you moron, do something!_

"And what on earth am I supposed to do?" Kai unintentionally wondered out loud. Mina, who had yet to even reach the door, froze in place. Kai also froze, no random thoughts came up to save him from the situation, and he soon found that he had nothing else to say. After a few still moments, Mina silently crept out the door. Kai waited for the soft sound of the door closing behind her before he sat up and stared at the door.

"That kid…" he started to mumble, but did not finish. Instead, he fell back onto his pillow and –finally- went back to sleep.


	17. New Plans

"Monty I need your help." Mina declared as she came into the lab room. No one else was there but Monty and her… and the falcon perched on Mina's shoulder.

"Not now." he demanded, waving an absent-minded hand at her. "I'm going to test the Time Window again. Stand back… or not, see if I care if your molecules get thrown all over the space and time."

Taking note that he sounded as cranky as she was, Mina did as she was told before Monty started to type in a complicated sequence into the console. The machine started to hum to life but Monty continued to type in commands before looking over at Mina.

"Brace yourself." he warned. She nodded and backed up a bit more as the young genius flipped a switch. The Time Window responded to the new stimulate instantly, as the humming grew louder and started to emit a low glow (something that certainly didn't happen before, Mina realized). For a bit, it seemed as if it was going to work, but the Time Window made a noise that made Mina jump.

Monty responded quickly to this and started to type commands back into the console again. It wasn't working, and the Time Window started to shake dangerously. Monty let out a low growl before giving the poor machine a hard kick- the Time Window stopped shaking in return, then gave out a quick, bright beam of light before shutting off altogether.

"Well," Monty sighed as he pushed his glasses back up on his nose, "That just happened..."

"What happened?" Mina questioned, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the normal light again. The flash had been so quick and bright that she was now seeing spots. Monty was too, but he didn't care, and started to go fix a panel underneath the keyboard.

"Apparently, it was an influx of power from this present, aided by another influx of power from the past to create a stable time loop to affirm this current timeline."

"English, Mont?"

"You just saw what happened, yes?"

"Yeah…?"

"Well that just collided with the first one."

"The first…?" the girl started to question before spotting Monty's less than pleased expression that she wasn't catching on, "Oh! When the ninja first appeared, that time right?"

The genius nodded. "Exactly." he affirmed. "We have just secured the past so that we can come back to this conclusion. With that being said though, we are now back where we began."

"Wonderful. Now can you help me?"

Monty looked up at her underneath of his glasses. "With what?" he snapped.

"I was wondering if you could… fuse Crow with the Time Window. Maybe it could give him the extra ROM space or something to locate them, to get on their trail and not on… the _other_ trail. Please?"

The young genius looked at the desperate girl in a contemplative expression. "The falcon would have existed in the same time that the ninja were from… and if connecting the time lines together for a brief moment in time was harmful, the falcon _is_ a robot with replaceable parts- he's no stranger to being repaired after all..."

Mina watched nonchalantly as Monty walked over to her, and put a hand on the shoulder the falcon was sitting on; this led to the bird flying off and to the top of the Time Window. "Min, you're a freaking genius." Monty told her before pulling her into a surprise hug. The girl let out a surprise squeak as Monty held her close in a tight embrace- this was _not_ normal for him. The last time Monty hugged her was when they were kids, and that was because he thought he had accidentally killed her, even then it wasn't as tight as he was hugging her now.

"Montgomery, you're scaring me." Mina warned, peeling herself off of him. He responded willingly and recomposed himself.

"The timelines are changing." he informed her sternly. "The sooner we get the ninja back, the better."

"What about my problems?" the girl questioned. Monty gave her a slow blink.

"We have spin-offs for a reason." he answered with a snide smirk.

. . .

Kai woke up the next morning with the sunlight streaming through the ninja's temporary bedroom and feeling way too tired. It was like he had been training all night, but that couldn't have been right. After Mina came in and he tried to go back to sleep, Kai had been dreaming about… something. There was a lot of arguing, he remembered that much. But with who? A part of him wanted to say that it was with himself- but that would have been stupid. Who argues with themselves in their sleep?

The red ninja staggered his way to the kitchen to find something to eat. It was apparently very late in the day, a little past noon at the most. He couldn't find anyone on his way over, not that he particularly cared in his current state. They were probably training or something.

Kai continued to stagger his way to the coffee machine and waited for it to fill the cup up. Taking it with a grunt, Kai sat down at the breakfast bar and slowly started to sip the very hot coffee black. It didn't help him wake up any faster, but at least he was getting some kind of nutrient into his body this late of day. Kai didn't even notice when Alice walked in, humming cheerfully to herself.

"Oh!" she marveled when she saw him. "Hello Kai!"

The tired red ninja gave her a nod to acknowledge her and mumbled a 'hey'. Alice took this as a sign to sit down next to him. She looked at him with her ever present grin as he continued to sip away at the coffee.

"There's something… different about you." she decided.

"Tired." Kai grumbled, giving her a dark look.

"No, no, not that silly!" Alice laughed. "I'm picking up strange energies around you- kinda like a brain wave signal I think. Mmmm..."

"What?" Kai questioned, feeling uneasy that she was giving him a pensive and thoughtful look while still giving off a Stepford smile.

"Have you been having strange thoughts lately?"

Kai nearly choked on his coffee, and ended up spitting some back into the cup. Alice watched on as if nothing were wrong and waited for him to recover.

"What thoughts have you been experiencing?" Alice inquired.

"Mina came into the bedroom last night," Kai told her, "And while she was in there it seemed like someone was trying to talk to me. The thing is, it wasn't just the normal voice at the back of you head, it was like..."

"Like what?"

"It was like I was talking myself. A version of myself that knew more than what I do now."

"A version of..." Alice contimplated, tilting her head side to side as she thought. "Oh!"

"Oh?"

"Come with me!" Alice suddenly declared, grabbing Kai by the wrist and forced him out of his seat as she rushed toward the door. "I know exactly what to do!"

Kai yanked his arm away from Alice and stopped immediately in his spot. "And what exactly do you plan on doing, besides yanking my arm off?"

"We're going on a road trip!" Alice cheered as she clapped her hands together. "But we have to sneak out, no one has to know where we're going or we'll get in big trouble!"

"Road… trip…?" Kai squeaked, already sure he was going to hate this plan.

. . .

"That's genius Minerva!" Cyrus reveled after Monty had explained the new plan to him, Nya, and Zane.

"That's what I told her." Monty agreed with a nod. "And I was thinking, perhaps we could have other objects that existed throughout the current timeline to create a more stable path to the past. Which means," he turned to Mina, "We'll have to take a trip to Midori Blaise to collect some things of Kai's to reconnect his timeline."

"I can get some of Jay and Cole's stuff too." Nya joined in. "I'll ask Cap to see if he can raid the bounty for something of Lloyd's."

"I can donate a few spare parts." Zane agreed.

"And I'll look for other pieces of Zane's history around the tower." Cyrus added.

"So what do you say Mina," Monty then said, giving her a small half smile, "Are you ready to go home?"

* * *

 **QUICK AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've been stuck writing this chapter for the longest time, and this was certainly not how I originally planned it would go out either. I could come up with a million and one excuses but it doesn't particularly matter. What does matter is that I'm considering rewriting Time Window- removing at least two characters, making better allusions to the ghosts and Djinn, removing Mina's side plot almost completely and skimming over that she's a pile of untapped destruction, replacing the Overlord with the Preeminent, and some other things. What would you like to see? What do you think I should improve during the rewrite? Please let me know as it could be a very large overhaul and I would like to improve this to the best it can be.**

 **Thanks again for reading, and here's to more chapters!**


	18. Midori Blaise

"Midori Blaise is a two story building; the lower section is basically a warehouse -nothing but square footage for anything from a garage to small business- and the upper floor pretty much exists to be a bedroom and not much else. Despite the name, the exterior of the building is blue. A really nice shade of blue, mind you, but I'm still not sure why you choose to have the word 'green' in the name. And then the interior! Woo boy Kai, it's this really ugly light brown color that Mina always rants about being the same color as-"

"Alice, why are you telling me this?" Kai interrupted, not finding this exposition interesting at all. "Isn't it, like, spoilers or something?"

"Does it really matter anymore?" she questioned in return, the lack of emotion in her tone temporarily disarming the ninja for a second. Kai opened his mouth in rebut, but found that he didn't have anything to argue against.

"We're going to need this!" Alice cheerfully chimed as she picked up a hoodie sweatshirt and placed it over top of Kai's head. The Ninja of Fire shoved her away, and put the hoodie down himself, taking care that the hood covered his hair. The robot child took a step back to admire her quick disguise for Kai and gave a decisive little sigh. The longer she stared at him, the more Kai started to feel uneasy; Alice got really uncanny when she forgot to blink… or breathe… or… anything human-like. Scratch that, Kai just didn't like Alice at all- there, that's exactly what he thought of her.

"Perfect!" Alice declared, scaring Kai out of his thoughts. "Come on, let's get going before anyone realizes we left!"

"Just don't yank my arm again, please." Kai said to her as she made the motion of attempting to take hold of his hand again. The request stopped her in her tracks, and she nodded in agreement.

"Then you better be quick!" she agreed. "We have a long way to go!"

. . .

Home.

Just the word made her feel sick. Cyrus had tried (perhaps a bit too hard) to make the Borg Tower her home. But it never worked. She had been raised in Midori Blaise, despite its small size and ugly choice of color schemes inside and out. A one bedroom home, where Kai willingly let her sleep on the only bed when she insisted otherwise. He tried to raise her while keeping up with his business. She tried to help him if she thought he needed it, but most of the time he claimed it was too dangerous for her to even pick up a hammer.

She had been a pretty selfless kid at one point, even if she didn't think things through at first.

Oh no, she really _was_ going to get sick. Quick, where's the closest window? Wait, she's on the deck, there isn't a window!

"You having fun over there Min?" Cap teased from the command room through the Bounty's intercom system.

"Shut up…!" Mina croaked loud enough for him to hear before heaving over the side of the Bounty again. This was not fun, nor was it ever going to be. Cap didn't waste much time making teasing her regardless, that's for sure.

"If you leave anything on the side of the ship, you'll have to clean it up." Cap continued to joke. A second later, something small hit the window at a fast pace- at the same time, Mina had let out a low growl to show how pleased she was with his humor.

"You need to desist." Montgomery scolded- he had been serving as Cap's second pilot, "She's a danger waiting to happen, making fun of her is _not_ going to help that."

"Can't I have a little bit of fun 'til then Mont?" Cap teasingly whined, his mouth curling into a charming boyish smile.

"Do you want to be the one living a life of guilt when the world burns?"

Cap stopped for a moment. "Point taken..." he grudgingly agreed.

"We need to be on our toes with Minerva." Monty then went on. "Especially since we are taking her back home. Who _knows_ what could happen when she gets emotionally charged any more. Her attitude is unstable enough as it is; Minerva's mind is on a timer that can go off at any moment. Even _she_ isn't aware of when it will go off. Let's not rush it any further than it needs to be- got it?"

"I hear, I hear." Cap brushed off. "But seriously though Mont, what's a trip back home gonna do to her?"

. . .

Kai will never question why Alice had the ability to drive when she was underage in both literal and physical sense. But sure enough, the robot girl had access to a convertible white car that must have been designed by Cyrus and Zane combined. The two sped through the Ninjago countryside- Kai took extra note of where they were heading from the city.

"So… if Midori means green, what does Blaise mean?" he asked when they were almost there, "And why do I call my home that when it's anything but green and whatever the heck Blaise means?"

"No one's quite sure how you got the name; but if it helps, Blaise is a Latin boy name meaning f- oh! We're here!"

Kai looked up at the building that he now owned in this timeline- admittedly, he wasn't too disappointed, but he wasn't pleased either. Not quite as tacky as what he thought it was going to look like, it seemed decent enough to be distinguishable between the other buildings around it. He had yet to see the inside though…

"Come on!" Alice demanded as she got out of the car, forcing herself to not pull on Kai's arm again. Taking some amount of care, Kai got out of the car and followed Alice inside. The robot girl had found a key under the doormat in front, and placed it into a keyhole. With a sad little creak, the door opened up for them. Alice barged right on in, while Kai lingered behind, as the little robot set about turning the breakers back on for the lights.

"There." she decided as she brushed her hands off with satisfaction. "Everything should be up and running again." Smiling, Alice looked up at Kai, who was still lingering outside of Midori Blaise.

Rolling her eyes a bit, Alice went behind Kai and forcibly pushed him inside. "Welcome home Kai!" she then declared with a flourish. The rough transition from the outside light to the indoor lights made the red ninja blink a few times before adjusting, and when his eyes adjusted, he wondered if he had been dreaming.

The lower half of Midori Blaise was too reminiscent of his father's old shop that it was nearly uncanny. Walking through it all made Kai remember stupid childhood memories of him and Nya. Everyone was neatly organized, it seemed, a few rejects were near the furnace to be smelted back down to scrap, several completed armors were hanging up on display, weapons were spread across tables and organized by type simply sat there, waiting to be used. Kai gawked at it all. Had he really made those by himself? How many of them were from preorders, or did he make them in advance? Were any of them custom fit to something special after a certain command?

"It's not going to be down here..." Alice thoughtfully decided. "Let's go upstairs instead."

Absently nodding in agreement, Kai followed the robot girl up a pair of creaking wooden steps to the upper level. It didn't impress Kai the same way the lower level did. Only containing a small bed and a decent sized chest, the room felt… homely, but not friendly. In a small ping of remembrance, Kai thought back to Mina living with Cyrus while the whole ordeal of this timeline went down. The room likely was more crowded than what it was now, but no longer was because neither Mina or this timeline's Kai were living in it. Suddenly, the room's atmosphere made Kai feel sick and miserable.

Unknown to him, Alice had taken herself into raiding the chest for something. "Ah-ha!" she declared eventually, pulling something out that hung on a chain. "Just where I put it!"

"Put what?" the Ninja of Fire questioned as Alice brought the thing over to him. On closer inspection, there looked to be a tooth of some sort tied to the chain.

"It's the necklace you had wrapped with the note that ripped Mina's heart out." Alice informed him cheerfully enough. "You know, the note you wrote that said you were going to leave-"

"Yeah I get it." Kai huffed. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"Well," Alice started, tilting her head to the side a bit, "This necklace is actually endowed with the power to-"

"WHAT…. ARE…. YOU… DOING?!" an angered voice suddenly screeched from the top of the steps. Kai and Alice whipped around to see a fuming Minerva.

"Oh, hello Minerva." Alice greeted as if nothing were wrong.

"I'm going to kill both you..." the girl told them darkly. "And it will _not_ be pleasant."

"Alice, I don't think she's joking." Kai fearfully informed the robot girl, taking note of the pure darkness in Mina's eyes, and the growing pit in his stomach that could have lasted two timelines and then some. For the first time he'd known her, Alice frowned.

"I know." she agreed solemnly. If Kai wasn't terrified by Minerva earlier, he now was by Alice's sudden melancholy.

Minerva took one step closer toward them, then lunged into attack.


	19. In Her Blood

Once upon a time, Kai was attacked by a dog. It totally wasn't his fault or anything, but the dog had attacked him in such a way that Kai could count all of its teeth as it tried to chew his head off. He never would have thought the image could be used to describe a possessed teenage girl, yet here he was, dodging beast-like lunges and attacks from a lethal Minerva Florence.

Her name -almost literally- meant prosperous wisdom and love, how ironic.

"Look, obviously it's not _me_ you're mad at." Kai tried to reason, realizing too late that Alice had left him alone. Minerva answered with a growl as she attempted to claw at his face- he dodged out of the way and nearly fell down the stairs. "Alright," he then digressed, "Maybe you _are_ mad at me, and that's alright. We can still talk this out maturely, don't you think?"

He did not get the answer he wanted to hear, so instead he retreated downstairs- leaving Minerva to nearly fall down the stairs this time. Alice wasn't downstairs either; where on earth did that stupid Stepford android go?!

"You're really dumb..." Minerva chuckled as she came down the stairs, hitting the railing and wall as if she were in a stupor. "Now I can really make you bleed..."

Before Kai took a moment to process what she was saying, Minerva grabbed a katana on one of the tables and started to slash at him. As impressed as he was at her technique, he was also justly terrified. He couldn't be impressed for too long, however, as Minerva almost made a swing that would have cut his arm off in one go.

Finding himself next to the armors, Kai quickly dressed himself in one of them then ducked from another attack. Minerva was not happy with this new dealing, so she tried to directly stab him instead. Kai dodge rolled out of the way near some shurikens while Minerva tried to get the katana out of the wall. It went in pretty deep, apparently, and when she succeeded in pulling it back out again, she ended up falling backwards from her own force. It seemed that as skilled as she appeared, there were still some errors in her control. For a fleeting moment, Kai wondered whether he ever took the time to train her, or if she were moving off of instinct. Regardless, Minerva found her footing again to stand up, still holding the katana in her hand. The blade, Kai just now realized, was facing behind her.

"You have a reverse grip?!" Kai shouted in surprise, just barely dodging a blow at his head. He landed against the wall where he took a moment to catch him breath. "Mina, look; I am truly, deeply sorry." he then said to her, "I really am; I must neglect you so, so much for this to happen..."

The girl didn't respond to him, instead making blows to his head as if something would connect. At some point, she hit a radio that was sitting on one of the weapon tables and it fell to the floor with a clatter. It fell on its side, pressing the button that turned it on; immediately, the radio started to blast some rock song throughout Midori Blaise, hauntingly allowing Minerva to move in beat with the music subconsciously.

"Minerva!" Monty suddenly shouted from the door. "Calm yourself!"

The teen snapped her head to glare at her friend, and threw the sword at him. Montgomery didn't even flinch as he shifted a bit to avoid the blade. Minerva growled, annoyed at his easy dodge, and prepared to throw a tri-winged boomerang at him before Kai made the mistake of tripping over something on the floor. Minerva snapped her head to focus on him instead, ditching the boomerang for a sai. Quickly, Kai looked around for a weapon he could use, and picked up at bo staff.

"Kai, you gotta knock her out!" Montgomery informed him as the teen picked up the katana from earlier to use, need he be.

"Okay." Kai agreed as Minerva tried to stab him, but he blocked it. Now her sai was trapped in the wood of the staff. "How do I do that?"

"She's extremely handicapped- take her from the opposite side and you should be able to land a punch."

"The kid's angry, I get that, but that doesn't mean I'm going to hit her!"

"Do you _really_ have a choice right now?!"

Kai looked at Minerva as she focused all her weight to make him fall backwards. Already apologizing in his mind several times over, Kai pushed Minerva back with his foot and made a dash to the opposite side of the room. Now with the sai and staff in his command, Kai knew what he needed to do. With Minerva advancing toward him again, Kai pulled the sai out of the staff and threw it toward her. Just as planned, instinctively Minerva turned to look at it, allowing Kai the opportunity to smack her upside the head without her realizing.

One last glaring look from the child went straight to Kai's heart as she crumbled to the ground. Exhausted as the adrenaline wore off, Kai walked over to the girl and gingerly started to pick her up. When he had her head properly secured, Kai started to get dizzy, forcing him to let her back down on the ground again. Images running through his mind, memories that didn't exist yet.

Hours alone just taking the girl up the stairs for bed. Rocking her when she was fussy and so tiny it was hard to think that she was once that small. Hugs, heartfelt and awkward, and lots of them.

"I'll get her." Montgomery decided, someone suddenly beside Kai, pushing him over slightly to pick Mina up. What Kai didn't know was that Monty had saw him get exceedingly pale as he tried to hold the girl.

"So, that kid's a pretty good fighter. Don't you think?" Kai hastily chuckled, rubbing the back of his head.

Montgomery paused for a moment. "With the blood that runs through her veins," he then said in a low tone, "I would have been more surprised if she wasn't."

. . .

The trip back to Borg Tower was miserable and silent. Minerva had been relocated to a room made like a hospital room, where Lloyd, Kai, Montgomery, Alice and Nya crowded around the girl to wait for her to wake up.

"What did you _do_ to her?" Lloyd kept asking, although ignoring the fact that Kai looked more beat up than Mina.

"It's what she did to me!" Kai always replied. "I don't think I'm going to be able to sit properly for the next week!"

"I can't believe you were ever a ninja." Nya chuckled to herself. "Such a crybaby, geez."

"And what makes you so immune to pain?" Kai demanded. Nya looked at him and badly tried to hold back a smile.

"I gave birth." she retorted, a bit too proudly. Thinking for a moment, Kai recoiled, believing that they needed to draw the line at that and bury it.

"Where you able to find more things connecting Kai's timeline?" Nya then asked to Alice and Montgomery after she had a good laugh.

"Yep! We were even able to get this!" Alice declared cheerfully as she held up a necklace. It dangled near the group, showing it off in full detail; a black pendant shaped like a fang, with something faintly moving around inside of it. Monty gave the neckalce one look then looked back up at Alice with fury.

"No wonder Minerva went off!" he demanded, snatching the necklace from her. "Alice, what were you thinking?!"

"Well..." the robotic girl hummed, "Kai is experiencing some sort of phenomenon where he is connecting with this timeline's Kai. I figured that he needed a stronger connection to our Kai, so I brought him to find the Tears of Midori Blaise. They do contain his bodily fluids after all."

"Wait, _what_?!" Kai screeched in horror. " _What's_ in that thing?!"

Montgomery rolled his eyes and set to be the one to explain; "The Tears of Midori Blaise." the teen genius then droned, "The story goes along the lines of the Green Ninja's tears being collected after separating from his true love, which formed the black casing due to the Overlord's dark curse surrounding his beloved's soul. Afterward, the charge of the Green Ninja's true love found the casing and began to cry as well upon biding farewell to the both of them, filling the casing with his tears and making them quite powerful."

"And you believe it?" Lloyd inquired curiously.

"In knowing the Green Ninja's true love and her charge?" Monty scoffed. "No, not particularly. Imposters of the Tears of Midori Blaise go for a pretty high price on the internet, so I'm told; it's an excellent gift for newlyweds."

"I'm flattered." Kai grumbled bitterly. Lloyd made a wise decision to say nothing.

"It's actually pretty good for your business." Nya remarked. "You don't sell any copies at your shop or anything, but lots are folks are curious though. Before the myth started to circulate, you hardly had anyone come in. You always denied the connection though."

"Why would it cause Mina to go on a rampage though?" Lloyd then wondered.

"Love." came the answer from three different sources. Kai and Lloyd exchanged a confused glance.

"Part of the story is true." Nya offered. "Kai did cry, a lot, when he had to separate from Mina- most of it due to lying to her even though he knew he had other obligations. He didn't let anyone know of course, and he tried to hide it but all that did was let us know he was doing it."

"It was a very conflicted time for me, alright?" Kai grumbled, not aware of what he was saying. "Can't a guy get a good cry out when he knowingly goes into a suicide mission?"

"I know." Nya agreed. "I understand. You were wearing that necklace most of the time before, and your crying did put something in it. You added it to the note you gave to Mina at last second; never said why."

"It's because..." Kai then said, still not aware of what he was saying, "The outside is actually Lloyd's blood, collected on the Dark Island shortly after he went missing."

"Kai..." Lloyd slowly started to question, "How do you know that?"

Alice, Montgomery, and Nya also agreed to this and looked at Kai expectantly. Kai looked as if he were lulling the answer over in his mind before finally admitting, "I'm not the Kai from the past, I'm Kai from the future."


End file.
